Authentication & Traceability Blog

“It’s become the wild west and it’s putting people in harm’s way.” That’s what Janet Woodcock, Director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in her testimony earlier this month as she asked congress for additional authority to regulate the supply chain. Continue reading →

The facts culled from recent FDA reports are attention-getting:

• Up to 40% of finished drugs used by U.S. patients are manufactured outside of the U.S.
• 80% of active ingredients and bulk chemicals used in U.S. drugs come from outside of the U.S.

Drug manufacturing is increasingly outsourced and offshored which means that supply chains are longer, faster, more complicated and harder to trace. There is a dire need to monitor the links of this chain from the point where raw ingredients are sourced to manufacturing to distribution and to final dispensation. Continue reading →

The global supply chain is getting longer and more complex. Traceability technologies are maturing and are becoming more widely implemented. These changes will herald an increasing number of creative ways that this traceability data will be used to extract value from the same investment in technology adoption. Continue reading →

Earlier this month, UPS released its 4^th annual “Pain in the (Supply) Chain Survey.” The survey investigates the primary supply chain concerns of senior-level decision makers at pharmaceutical, medical device and biotech companies in the US, Europe and Asia. Continue reading →