Tag Archives: pharmaceutical supply chain

Brazil Moves to Formalize A Phased Rollout, Starting Next October

If you do business in Brazil then you know that everything is published there in Portuguese, including ANVISA’s documents.  It is necessary to translate everything unless you can read Portuguese.  I can’t, so whenever something comes out I have to do a quick translation to get an idea of how significant it is.  Last week, ANVISA published two new documents related to their future pharma serialization and traceability mandate.  They are important, because they relate directly to the schedule and some of the requirements of Brazil’s pharma serialization and traceability mandate.

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China Inches Closer To Another Pharma Serialization Mandate

In late August, the China National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) issued three new drug and vaccine traceability guidance documents.  Then in mid-September, they issued five draft documents for comment related to the data exchange protocol for drug traceability.  Based on those publications, it appears that China really is accelerating their move toward traceability of drugs (see “China Commits To The Digital Future In Healthcare, Including Pharma Traceability”).

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Russia Officially Cuts Length of Crypto-code in Half

Earlier this month the Russian Federation finally amended Decree #1556 to cut the length of the Signature portion of the crypto-code element of their pharmaceutical unique identifier in half.  Will that solve the problems the industry uncovered, like the barcode taking up so much space and slow read performance?  Let’s take a closer look at it, but first, a review. 

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DSCSA Uniqueness: SNI vs SGTIN…Again

Ahh, summer.  Some years it seems like everyone is on vacation except me.  I usually only take a few days off here and there in the summer, preferring to do longer vacations in other parts of the year.  So next weekend I’m going to take an extra day off, and so there will be no RxTrace essay published next Monday (the Labor Day holiday here in the US), and I’m going to link to one of my favorite essays from the last year this week as the summer winds down.  This essay was posted on October 7, 2018 under the “A Monthly Slice of RxTrace” on the Center For Supply Chain Studies (C4SCS) website.  Unfortunately I haven’t been able to keep up with the “Monthly” part of that title due to time pressures, but there is some great content out there from the last 12 months (see “A Monthly Slice of RxTrace”).  Other than my diverted attention, nothing has changed so I may post more new content on the C4SCS site in the future if I can make some time.

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Is The FDA About To Delay Enforcement Of The Wholesaler’s 2019 Mandate?

On November 27, 2019 the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) requires wholesale distributors to step up their supply chain security activities another notch.  They are required to:

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China: NMPA Drug Traceability Guidance

Most RxTrace readers will recall that China was an early adopter of drug traceability.  Back in 2007, companies were required to begin printing unique identifiers in linear barcodes on certain drug packages.  The unique identifiers had to be purchased from a government contractor.  The list of drugs grew each year to the point where all drugs were effectively covered by early 2016.  But shortly after that, the whole requirement was suspended (see “China’s Retreat From Pharma Serialization: Will This Become A Global Trend?” and “China Adds Traceability Requirement To CFDA Drug Quality Management Specification”).  Then last summer, a new government agency, the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), posted three draft guidance documents for review and comments (see “China Posts New Draft Pharma Serialization Guidelines”).  Finally, last month, the NMPA published two of those documents in final form, “Implemented on April 19, 2019”. 

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Brazil: The Anvisa 2019 Pilot Report

Earlier this month Anvisa published an initial report on their drug traceability pilot as required by law there (see “Brazil Gets Rational With Their New Pharma Traceability Law” and “Brazil Publishes RDC-157 To Regulate 2017 3-Lot Pilot”).  I finally had time to use Google Translate on that report.  Google keeps improving their translation software and it is now to the point where I think the translation of this document is pretty good.  I still don’t recommend you use it for compliance decisions, but it’s great for getting a preview of what the document—originally in Portuguese—says.

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DSCSA: Historic Change To Commerce

Back in 2010 I posted an RxTrace essay called “California Pedigree Law:  Historic Change To Commerce” that pointed out the significant change that was then scheduled to occur once the California law was to go into full effect in 2016.  Of course, that state law was preempted by the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) back in 2013 so we never actually experience that change.  But what about the DSCSA?  Will it change the way commerce happens in a historic way?  Let’s take a look.

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