HDA Blog

As the summer winds down, HDA is hard at work planning our 2018 Traceability Seminar, which will take place three weeks earlier, on October 17–19 at the Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel. As the industry passes the halfway mark for DSCSA implementation, our 2018 agenda leverages HDA and our members’ unique expertise to help fellow stakeholders answer critical questions while planning for the multiple milestones ahead.

As mentioned in our February 16 blog post, HDA and industry participants continue to make progress working with solution providers as Verification Router Service (VRS) solutions are developed for the 2019 DSCSA saleable returns requirement. This work has taken three paths: establishing governance processes; creating testing scenarios; and launching the testing phase.

HDA and its member companies are committed to reversing our nation’s opioid abuse epidemic. That is why the Alliance is working with stakeholders in communities nationwide to educate and raise awareness about the dangers associated with opioid abuse and misuse.

Last year, FDA announced a period of “enforcement discretion” related to the deadline for manufacturers to serialize products under the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA). As the industry quickly approaches the November 2018 deadline, it is essential for companies to prepare now for the reality of conducting business in a serialized environment. Is your company ready to meet the new requirements?

Disposing of unused prescription opioids safely and as soon as they are no longer needed can help prevent these medicines from falling into the wrong hands. Data show that opioid misuse often starts in the home, with more than 40 percent of those who misused prescription pain relievers obtaining the medication from a friend or relative for free.