Traceability

Background

Passage of the Drug Quality and Security Act (H.R. 3204) was a major win for HIDA and for the healthcare supply chain. The law created a uniform national standard for tracing pharmaceuticals through the supply chain. The law ensures the safety of drugs for patients and preempted the burdensome patchwork of state pedigree laws, allowing distributors to conduct business the same way in all 50 states. The resulting ability to uniformly trace medical products and stop counterfeit drugs from entering the U.S. supply chain is essential, for both patient safety and supply chain integrity. Title II of the DQSA, the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), outlines steps to build an electronic, interoperable system to identify and trace certain prescription drugs as they are distributed. The DSCSA directs the FDA to establish national licensure standards for wholesale distributors and third-party logistics providers, and requires these entities report licensure information to FDA annually.

What Members Need to Know

Although the DSCSA directs the FDA to establish the above-mentioned national licensure standards, FDA has still not released any standards to date. HIDA has allied with other associations and corporations to encourage the FDA to publish these licensure standards to prevent creating confusion in the current market that will generate an additional hurdle for states when they must backtrack after the federal regulations are issued. Additionally, as the agency develops federal regulations, HIDA believes it is important that any standards be consistent with Congress’ intent to establish a national system and that the national standard establish both a floor and a ceiling to wholly preempt state wholesale distributor licensure requirements.

If you would like to view archived resources, please email hida@hida.org.