Tag Archives: Turkey

Serializing Product Groupings Under Global Regulations

A “product grouping” is any collection of saleable units of products that are bound together in some way.  They can be “bundles”, homogeneous or non-homogeneous cases, totes, pallets or something like these.  The pharma serialization regulations in some markets call out some of these groupings for special treatment, and some do not.  I’ll try to catalog what we know about product groupings in each of the current, known regulations. Continue reading Serializing Product Groupings Under Global Regulations

SAP Makes Bold Move Into Pharma Traceability

sap-erp-graphicLast week SAP announced the availability of their brand new software module they are calling “SAP Advanced Track and Trace for Pharmaceuticals”, or ATTP.  Pharmaceutical Commerce magazine published an article about it recently that provides the details of what is contained in this new module.  The same issue contained a sponsored article from SAP about the module.  As long-term readers of RxTrace know, I do not endorse specific products and I rarely even write about specific products.  This essay is not an endorsement— Continue reading SAP Makes Bold Move Into Pharma Traceability

InBrief: The Rx-360 Traceability Data Exchange Architecture White Paper

rx-360-logoLast week, Rx-360, a pharma supply chain consortium aimed at patient safety through a secure supply chain, quietly published the white paper on Traceability Data Exchange Architecture (TDEA) (see “Pharma Supply Chain Companies Organize To Establish Global Traceability Data Exchange Architecture”).

This is a new addition of major importance to the thin collection of public resources companies have available to understand the scope and the specifics of pharma serialization and traceability regulations around the world—and that’s just the first half of the document.  In fact, that half is so complete and well written that it should be downloaded and read immediately by anyone facing those regulations anywhere in the world…especially if Continue reading InBrief: The Rx-360 Traceability Data Exchange Architecture White Paper

InBrief: Illegally Imported Drugs Found To Be Counterfeit…Again

Altuzan labeled for sale in Turkey
Altuzan labeled for sale in Turkey

Yesterday the FDA alerted healthcare providers that a cancer drug illegally imported and distributed to medical practices by a licensed pharmaceutical distributor going by the names “Medical Device King” and “Pharmalogical”, and Taranis Medical, is counterfeit.  The FDA alert can be found here.  Once again, the drug is labeled as Altuzan, a version of bevacizumab which contains the same active ingredient as Avastin.  Here is AP story about it.  Here is the WSJ article about it.

Avastin was the subject of a counterfeit importation crime about a year ago, (see “How Counterfeit Avastin Penetrated the U.S. Supply Chain“).

It is illegal to import drugs that are not approved by the FDA for sale and use in the U.S., and so even if the drug had not turned out to be a counterfeit version, this would have still been a crime.  It makes me wonder if the reason this case came to light was because the drug name on the package was clearly not approved here.  What if the counterfeit drug had been Continue reading InBrief: Illegally Imported Drugs Found To Be Counterfeit…Again