News Feature | April 17, 2014

Pharma Execs Respond To DSCSA

By Estel Grace Masangkay

Frequentz announced the release of the company-sponsored 2014 RxTrace 'US Pharma Traceability Survey'. The survey reveals the pharmaceutical industry’s perspectives on the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA).

The DSCSA is the Title II of The Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA), signed into law by President Obama last November 2013. DSCSA outlines steps to build an electronic, interoperable system to track and trace specific prescription drugs as they are distributed in the U.S.

The act called on drug makers, wholesale drug distributors, repackagers, and pharmacies to cooperate with the FDA for the development of the system. Over the next ten years, the DSCSA will require unique methods of product identification, tracing, verification, and counterfeit drug detection among others.

The company said the survey was the first to measure the pharma industry’s thoughts on the new act and its track-and-trace requirements. Key findings from the RxTrace survey include:

• Most companies will treat the DSCSA with the same or more urgency and interest than they treated the California pedigree law (48 percent of respondents)

• Most people believe their company leaders understand all or most of what will be required to meet the DSCSA (57 percent of respondents)

• Most people agree that the DSCSA does not require manufacturers to collect or pass aggregation data during phase 1 (combined 69 percent of respondents)

• Most people believe that EDI ASNs can be used to fulfill the DSCSA requirement to pass transaction information, transaction history, and transaction statements to their customers (almost 40 percent of respondents)

Dirk Rodgers, founder of RxTrace, said, “With the passage of the federal Drug Supply Chain Security Act, companies filling any role in the US supply chain will need to start passing transaction data on each change of ownership as soon as January 1, 2014. The results of this survey offer an important view into the thinking of leading companies in the supply chain, including early interpretations of various components of the new law.”