GS1 Healthcare Study Shows the Pharmaceutical Industry is Making Progress Toward Interoperability

GS1 Healthcare, an industry group dedicated to implementing GS1 Standards in the US healthcare industry, announced on Feb. 8, 2021 that a GS1 US Barcode Assessment study showed the pharmaceutical industry is making progress toward interoperability with a majority of products being accurately serialized according to the requirements specified in the 2013 Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA).

The study, which was piloted by AmerisourceBergen Corporation, McKesson Pharmaceutical and Cardinal Health, and GS1 US, found that more than 90% of packages and cases scanned at the three companies met all of the labeling requirements, with three years remaining until the final DSCSA deadline in 2023, GS1 said in a company press release. Specifically, 90.1% of specialty packages were tracked by AmerisourceBergen; 86.6% of packaged drugs were tracked by McKesson; and 93.1% of homogeneous cases were tracked by Cardinal Health.

“It’s encouraging to see continued improvement in recommended barcoding of pharmaceutical products—especially in 2020, as the healthcare industry had to focus on urgent supply-chain issues related to pandemic response,” said Angela Fernandez, vice-president, community engagement, GS1 US, in the press release. “The interoperability that will be enabled in 2023 by full DSCSA implementation is going to significantly enable better data sharing for improved supply chain efficiencies and patient safety. As the world moves toward post-pandemic operations, the foundational work that has been done with recommended barcoding will greatly improve pharmaceuticals distribution, patient safety, and global health.”

Source: GS1