HDA Announces Partnership With ValueCentric for Industry-Wide GTIN Repository
Arlington, VA (PRWEB) December 22, 2016 -- The Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA) today announced a new, long-term partnership with ValueCentric, LLC, to create a GTIN Repository Service designed to help ensure the efficient introduction of a GTIN coding system and ease its adoption across the pharmaceutical supply chain.
The impetus for the new service, which will be launched in 2017, was the enactment of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA). The DSCSA is being implemented through a phased approach, begun in 2013, for tracing product movement in the pharmaceutical supply chain. The DSCSA’s staged milestones culminate in November 2023, when all packaged product will be serialized and traced from the manufacturer to the patient.
The purpose of this new service is to provide:
(1) An easy-to-use central GTIN repository to ensure the efficient and accurate exchange of pharmaceutical product master data between manufacturers and their supply chain partners;
(2) Further compliance with the DSCSA;
(3) Real-time access to a self-service, cloud-based portal that allows for manufacturers to upload, update, and share product information quickly with their downstream partners; and,
(4) A foundation for using product serialization data to advance industry logistics planning, analysis, and reporting.
“HDA is committed to developing products and services that support the industry’s ability to deliver medicines efficiently and quickly, while also enhancing the safety of the pharmaceutical supply chain,” said John M. Gray, President and CEO of HDA. “A repository with up-to-date GTIN information, readily available to all stakeholders, will help ensure end-to-end system accuracy and heightened productivity.”
HDA has selected ValueCentric as its partner to collaboratively build and deliver the repository service to the industry because of its expert management of complex data and relationships in the pharmaceutical supply chain. “We are extremely excited to partner with HDA in this critical endeavor. Stakeholders at all levels in the healthcare supply chain already rely on ValueCentric for secure data management, analytics, and reporting, so partnering with HDA to deliver an industry repository is well aligned with our expertise and strategic vision,” said Dave Janca, Founder and CEO of ValueCentric. “Having brought dynamic solutions to the market for 15 years, including the ValueTrak platform, provides us with a strong foundation for creating a successful repository of GTIN information for pharmaceutical trading partners.”
All participants within the pharmaceutical supply chain acknowledge the importance of this GTIN repository service and it is expected to be widely used by manufacturers and wholesalers. “As we move toward the DSCSA serialization requirements, access to a GTIN database with real-time, reliable information will be crucial to meeting regulatory demands and to ensure pharmaceutical products move through the supply chain efficiently,” said Heather Zenk, VP of Global Secure Supply Chain Operations, AmerisourceBergen. “We are confident that our partnership with HDA combined with ValueCentric’s dedication to quality and reliability will make this service an exciting endeavor for companies working across the pharmaceutical supply chain. We are all committed to patient safety and continued access to life-saving treatments; this service is a step to ensuring we provide both,” said Zenk.
“Recent pilot activity to support DSCSA requirements has outlined the importance of maintaining accurate product master data to facilitate serialized data exchange. Ongoing efforts to seek solutions to address these types of industry challenges is welcomed by GSK,” said Shaun Kirkpatrick, Manager, Track and Trace Operations, GlaxoSmithKline. At HDA’s recent Traceability Seminar in Washington, D.C., HDA released results from its Pilot Study for Saleable Returns, which was designed to inform manufacturers and distributors in their efforts to comply with upcoming DSCSA requirements.
Product specifications will be overseen by a committee appointed from the HDA’s representative member community. Subscriptions will be solicited during the first half of 2017, and third quarter 2017 availability is planned.
For additional information about the initiative and to learn how to participate, visit http://www.valuecentric.com/gtin.
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About the Healthcare Distribution Alliance:
The Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA) represents primary pharmaceutical distributors — the vital link between the nation’s pharmaceutical manufacturers and more than 200,000 pharmacies, hospitals, long-term care facilities, clinics and others nationwide. Since 1876, HDA has helped members navigate regulations and innovations to get the right medicines to the right patients at the right time, safely and efficiently. The HDA Research Foundation, HDA’s non-profit charitable foundation, serves the healthcare industry by providing research and education focused on priority healthcare supply chain issues. For more information, visit http://www.hda.org.
About ValueCentric:
ValueCentric is the leader in channel data management and analytic solutions for the healthcare industry. Its mission is to help customers leverage their channel data to improve business decisions, reduce costs, and increase the speed in which products reach patients in need. Pharmaceutical, specialty pharma, and medical product companies including marquee customers AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson trust their platform, ValueTrak. ValueTrak provides trade, finance, managed markets, regulatory and sales teams with a flexible and powerful platform to improve business relationships, manage orders, and integrate key pharmacy and channel data to make more informed product decisions. ValueCentric continues to be a pioneer in the pharmaceutical, specialty, and medical products industries investing in big data solutions and improving how all parties can use data including DSCSA related data streams to optimally manage their product performance in the channel. For more information, visit http://www.valuecentric.com.
Jessica Bruyn, ValueCentric, http://www.valuecentric.com, +1 716-972-1652, [email protected]
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