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Articles

Drugmakers recalibrate anti-counterfeiting and serialization efforts

Even While Regulatory Mandates Slip Into the Future, Brand Protection Needs Remain

Mature product franchises and mixed clinical outcomes have not dissuaded pharma companies from expending marketing resources for cardiovascular disease treatment

A Pitched Battle in Cardiovascular Drug Marketing

Biopharmaceutical manufacturers turn to a direct-distribution model to leverage opportunities for cost-effective drug delivery and personalized health management services

Building an Alternative Distribution Model for Ultra-Orphan Diseases

The history behind the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA)

The latest DSCSA exemptions and what that means for trading partners

How this piece of legislation and AI are able to intertwine

Nicholas Saraceno offers an overview of the legislation and how it impacts the pharma supply chain.

Nov. 27 is Here: What Does That Mean for DSCSA?

 interview, Dave DeJean, Systech’s VP of global strategic accounts, dives into:

The valuable lessons he’s learned along the way, given his three and half decades of experience at Systech

An overview of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), including its three main pillars

How he would interpret this “Stabilization Period” that the FDA provided this past summer, and what he pharma industry do now during this period in order to avoid penalties later

Whether or not he anticipates the FDA implementing any other sort of delays in the near future in order to help remedy these issues/challenges surrounding the enactment of DSCSA

Podcast is available directly on SoundCloud.

Dave DeJean provides his expert insight on lessons he’s learned from his plethora of time in the industry, along with an outlook on where the pharma supply chain stands in adhering to the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA). 

Complying With the DSCSA

Healthcare providers must enhance awareness of counterfeit medicines to protect patients, especially as online drug purchases rise.

Raising the Alarm

This serialization system represents a business imperative that yields significant competitive advantages.

Serialization 2.0: Why It’s Time to Upgrade, and What’s at Stake

When delays and disruptions threaten not only product integrity but patient
well-being, thorough risk assessment and mitigation are essential.

Reducing Risk in the Pharmaceutical Cold Chain

Why taking proactive steps—and combing the right data sources—is critical to informed decision-making in risk management.

What Your Data Can Tell You About Illicit Trade Risk

Ensuring that essential treatments reach patients safely and efficiently is an increasing imperative in today's pharma landscape.

Strategies to Modernize, Future-Proof, and Secure the Healthcare Supply Chain

How DSCSA Is Transforming Supply Chain Data Exchange

 roundtable discussion, Nicholas Saraceno, editor of 

 and the peer exchange’s moderator, introduced a discussion on the pharmaceutical supply chain, highlighting its complexity and importance in delivering medications safely and efficiently from manufacturers to patients. The conversation explored the roles of various stakeholders, the need for supply chain resilience and quality control, and the growing importance of data management in achieving these goals.

The pharmaceutical supply chain is a multi-stage system encompassing: research & development; manufacturing; distribution: pharmacies and healthcare providers; and patients.

This system plays a vital role in supporting both individual and public health. It ensures patient safety by maintaining drug quality, authenticity, and regulatory compliance. Additionally, it supports public health by providing consistent access to essential medications and vaccines. During times of crisis—such as pandemics, natural disasters, or supply disruptions—the supply chain becomes even more critical for delivering life-saving therapies and maintaining stability. Efficient supply chain logistics also contribute to cost control

helping reduce healthcare spending and improve the affordability of medications.

Ultimately, a resilient, transparent, and well-managed pharmaceutical supply chain is foundational to maintaining global healthcare systems. It ensures that patients receive the medications they need when they need them, and that providers and manufacturers can work collaboratively to meet evolving challenges in healthcare delivery.

The panel consisted of Dave Malenfant, an expert that specializes in optimizing the supply chain through innovative solutions for people, processes, and technology; Opeyemi Odusami, a seasoned professional with over 12+ years of experience and 10+ years at Sanofi; and Bob Celeste, Founder, Center for Supply Chain Studies, and Executive Director, Open Credentialing Initiative (OCI).

Each expert brought distinctive perspectives on the value of the pharmaceutical supply chain, including techniques for resilience.

Malenfant highlighted offers a holistic, circular model defined by seven stages: plan, source, make, deliver, sell, sustain, and return. This perspective emphasizes the importance of viewing the supply chain as an interconnected system, where resiliency depends on maintaining strong links across all stages. Each segment can have its own strategy, but the key is ensuring smooth, uninterrupted flow of both materials and data from end to end. Disruptions—such as current hospital drug shortages—often reflect failures at earlier stages, like sourcing or manufacturing. For instance, many shortages stem from the inability to obtain active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), which then ripple down the chain. He encouraged the audience to think of resiliency not just as a concept, but as an ongoing process of identifying weak links and implementing strategies to strengthen them, thereby ensuring the continuity and stability of the entire supply network.

Odusami added that supply chain resiliency involves not only responding to crises but also anticipating and preventing them. In addition to maintaining a synchronized supply chain—from purchasing and manufacturing to logistics and distribution—companies must build adaptability into their systems. This means being prepared for disruptions while also using data and planning to predict future issues. A resilient supply chain ensures continuity in drug delivery to patients, even during crises. Aligning all parts of the supply chain is key to maintaining consistent access to medications and protecting public health in the face of unexpected challenges or shortages.

As for Celeste, he noted that as more regions like the United States and Europe adopt product serialization, data and product misalignment has become a growing challenge in the pharmaceutical supply chain. In the US, such mismatches often result in products being placed in quarantine, with limited time and space to resolve the issue before the product is returned or removed. A key aspect of supply chain resiliency is the ability to efficiently manage these exceptions to avoid disruptions. Since serialization errors can escalate quickly, developing systems to handle data alignment and resolve issues promptly is critical to keeping products moving through the supply chain.

The panel also dove into risk mitigation; the handling of drug shortages, and crisis management; ensuring product quality across global manufacturing sites; dealing with counterfeit products; the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA); the importance of a developing a deep talent pipeline; sustainable practices; and much more.

In the fourth part of this roundtable discussion, a panel of subject matter experts dive into data exchange challenges relating to the Drug Supply Chain Security Act.

How DSCSA Is Transforming Supply Chain Data Exchange (Episode 4)

The Hidden Challenge of Reporting Counterfeit Medicines

, Sean O’Hearen, founder and principal consultant at 1st Line Partners, discusses the critical issue of substandard and falsified (SF) medicines and the lack of awareness among healthcare professionals (HCPs). Despite SF drugs posing a growing global health risk, only 2% of HCPs are trained to detect them, and over 80% don’t consider them a serious threat. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has recently started focusing on this issue, holding its second symposium on the topic with support from Pfizer. Their work is encouraging, signaling that academic institutions are beginning to address these systemic educational gaps.

O’Hearen notes he’s not an expert in medical or pharmacy education but emphasizes that the BESAFE report—referenced in the interview—offers actionable recommendations. These include integrating SF medicine awareness into undergraduate curricula for healthcare students, establishing dedicated modules in medical schools, and expanding continuing education for practicing professionals. In his experience, frontline education, especially at infusion centers administering life-saving treatments like oncology drugs, plays a critical role in identifying and preventing counterfeit drug use. Nurses and healthcare workers trained to detect signs of falsification are a vital line of defense.

Efforts are underway globally, with the World Health Organization and the International Pharmaceutical Federation leading collaborative projects with African universities in countries like Nigeria, Uganda, and Tanzania. These efforts aim to establish standardized, research-backed curricula to address the growing threat of SF medicines, especially in regions more vulnerable to drug fraud.

While progress is being made, O’Hearen believes the issue is still in its early stages of recognition and response. With more academic and clinical institutions like Johns Hopkins stepping up, the hope is to eventually embed SF medicine detection and awareness into formalized education systems worldwide—closing critical gaps in the healthcare supply chain and improving patient safety.

He also comments on how the private sector should support and scale these efforts to ensure that HCPs globally receive standardized training; the communication strategies stakeholders should adopt to alert without alarming, ensuring patients stay confident in genuine pharmaceuticals, while also remaining vigilant against counterfeit threats; and much more.

Why has the underreporting of falsified medicines been such a prominent issue?

I think there's a very significant issue related to under reporting. Obviously, it's connected to the awareness issue. But I think the consumer behavior, is that if you do go on to the internet or social media and you buy a medicine, you recognize, okay, something's wrong, either the packaging or you took it and nothing happened, or whatever the case may be, I think there's a reluctance to report that because you're almost embarrassed that you were scammed.

They just may not know where to report it. I think that's the key messaging that goes on is creating the awareness, how do I report it, and really encouraging people to report. It's interesting, too. When you look at like the PSI data, you see that in the US, surprisingly (this data is public on their website), if you look regionally, the United States has the most incidents, and people say, how is that the case? How was it not China? Well, it's because our customs regime, our defenses are better. People are more likely to report.

In the fourth part of his Pharma Commerce video interview, Sean O’Hearen, founder and principal consultant at 1st Line Partners, describes the prominence of underreporting falsified medicines. 

Cracking Down on Illegal Online Pharmacies

With approximately 95% of online pharmacies classified as illegal or unsafe, yet both patients and providers are increasingly using them—sometimes for cost or access reasons—what regulatory or verification mechanisms would you recommend to safely legitimize online medicine procurement?

The regulatory and verification mechanisms are in place, and I haven't studied, internationally, all the various regimes, but if we can just focus on the US, the verification system is managed through the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP). They have a digital verification system. There's an FDA component to that. Of course, all the state-level licensing of pharmacies, all of that kind of system applies. The system is there, and it works. But the problem is, if you're a motivated offender, a bad actor, it's too easy to put a website up, go through social media channels. In regard to the discussion of online channels as the bane of our existence in this effort, everyone is aware of this, but it's a significant challenge.

The barriers to entry are very low. These product integrity programs, they spend a lot of their resources in the detection monitoring, takedowns, enforcement efforts—it's a constant battle. It's not surprising that you get this 95% number. I just looked at their website today, and there's 35 to 40,000 of these illegal online pharmacies that you can find at any one time. Those aren't the only platforms where people are selling. That’s the issue. The verification mechanism exists. That’s why I highlighted the article too.

From a consumer perspective and from a patient perspective, it's important to know how to verify. You can go to the NABP site, the Safe.pharmacy site, and take a URL and just put the URL in there and it will verify that against LegitScript. There are easy ways to verify, but again, it's the awareness issue. People are not aware. Convenience, access, and cost are the reasons why people will go to buy online. People in certain parts of the world, I think, certainly are fearful of getting substandard, falsified, counterfeit medicines. But I think in the US in particular, I think the mindset is more that they would be shocked that somebody would do that, that somebody would actually counterfeit a medicine.

In the third part of his Pharma Commerce video interview, Sean O’Hearen, founder and principal consultant at 1st Line Partners, recommends regulatory or verification mechanisms that can help safely legitimize online medicine procurement.

Creating a Unified Strategy to Advance Education on Counterfeit Medicines

Initiatives like BESAFE, the FIP & WHO Pharmacy Curriculum Guide on Substandard and Falsified Medicines, and the Partnership for Safe Medicines are cited as critical, yet underfunded. How should the private sector, including pharma manufacturers, strategically support and scale these efforts to ensure that HCPs globally receive standardized training?

I think they're already doing a lot, number one, but there are so many different organizations that are working this problem. I's not only the manufacturers. You have the associations like the Pharmaceutical Security Institute (PSI) that the manufacturers are a part of. A lot of other nonprofit organizations, trade organizations, of course, regulatory authorities. You have the World Health Organization and so on. There are so many different organizations, including all of the law enforcement community.

I think there is an opportunity for an alliance of alliances-type of concept. With all these different organizations that are trying to work this problem, getting aligned on a few sort of strategic pillars, education being one of them, that we can pursue in a more harmonized way. There's a lot to consider if you're trying to get do something like that. In my experience, and especially with the bigger pharmaceutical manufacturers that I've had experience with, they all have it as part of their strategy; it’s one of their strategic pillars. They all have an element that's devoted to advocacy and awareness, and engaging with external stakeholders, the whole variety of stakeholders. They have a budget that is connected with that, and then they need to decide, how are we going to allocate these resources? Are we going to focus on policy levers, on education levers, on training of law enforcement, public awareness? What is it? What are we going to do, in addition to what it costs to be part of some of these associations, which is not inexpensive. That’s where there's not alignment.

These different organizations where I think they're applying a lot of resources externally and sometimes in a coordinated fashion, like with a PSI or an Rx-360, but I think there's an opportunity to pull more resources to focus at an even higher level, on some of these initiatives. I would put this education piece of healthcare professionals in that category, if it were me deciding on the priority.

In the second part of his Pharma Commerce video interview, Sean O’Hearen, founder and principal consultant at 1st Line Partners, explains how the private sector should strategically support and scale efforts to ensure that HCPs globally receive substandard and falsified medicine detection training. 

Why Medical Education Must Catch Up 

Your article highlights that only 2% of HCPs are trained to identify substandard and falsified (SF) medicines, and over 80% don’t view SF drugs as a serious issue. What systemic gaps in medical and pharmacy education need to be addressed, and how can academic and clinical institutions accelerate awareness training?

Clearly, as the Johns Hopkins research indicates, it's a significant issue. The first thing I would say is that I think the industry is very pleased that the school with the resources of Johns Hopkins and their public health team recognize excellence, and the public health arena are getting behind this issue, and it's only been a couple of years. The report that I was referring to in the article was their second symposium, so they're just recently getting behind it, with sponsorship from Pfizer. Great to see that push.

One thing I should say is that I'm not an expert on medical and pharmacy education, number one. You can access that report through the BESAFE references, but that report you'll give some very specific recommendations, as far as what can be done to address the education gap that that they're seeing.

They're talking about all levels of education. It’s starting with undergrad curricula for healthcare professionals, pharmacists, folks who are interested in medical degrees. Of course, medical school having dedicated curricula around that, and continuing education related to that. I think there's also a component that pharmaceutical manufacturers and industry associations are doing today, and that is providing education to healthcare professionals, either in cases where they're reacting to an incident and a known issue, and then that education of those frontline workers becomes part of the solution.

I've been involved in many cases where we're trying to solve, and that's a significant part of the solution is educating those healthcare practitioners. Just as an example that's been at infusion centers: one of the trends we’re seeing is life-saving type of treatments—like oncology treatments—in certain parts of the world where counterfeits are turning up. It's enabling those nurses, who are working with the products and patients to help them understand how to identify counterfeit medicine.

The issue that the report highlights is that there are few standardized curricula. There's the International Pharmaceutical Federation, which, I think, at least based on what I've seen—I haven't done extensive research on this—but that's kind of the first of its type of a really, thoroughly researched and an organized effort. Notably, that was sponsored and put together by with the help of the World Health Organization and International Pharmaceutical Federation. The universities involved were in Africa. There were five countries in Africa, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, and some others, so obviously, they're trying. The World Health Organization in particular is trying to focus on those parts of the world where this issue is even more significant than it is in other parts of the world. In terms of the big picture, I think we're in early stages on addressing the issue. Johns Hopkins isn't the only university that's getting behind this issue, but as more and more universities recognize it, I think that the goal would be to try to get this education into standardized curriculum.

In the first part of his Pharma Commerce video interview, Sean O’Hearen, founder and principal consultant at 1st Line Partners, lays out the systemic gaps in medical and pharmacy education that need to be addressed, along with how academic and clinical institutions can accelerate awareness training in identifying substandard and falsified medicines.

Peer Exchange: Understanding the Pharma Supply Chain (Episode 1)

In the first part of this roundtable discussion, a panel of subject matter experts introduce themselves, while discussing the strategies that are most effective in ensuring resilience across the global supply chain.

How Regulatory Mandates Influence Technology

, Kirsten Newquist, Identiv’s CEO, defines “smart pharma packaging” as the integration of technology into pharmaceutical packaging to enhance product identification, tracking, and patient engagement. She explains that packaging primarily involves embedding technologies such as RFID radio-frequency identification (RFID) or Bluetooth low energy (BLE) into pharmaceutical containers. These technologies assign a unique digital ID to each package, enabling serialization, which is critical for tracking and traceability across the global supply chain.

This digital ID allows stakeholders—from manufacturers to pharmacists and patients—to verify a drug’s authenticity at every step of its journey. This significantly reduces the risk of counterfeit drugs entering the system, as products can be authenticated upon delivery or administration. Newquist emphasizes that this kind of smart packaging not only strengthens supply chain security but also fosters better patient engagement, offering real-time data that can support dosage verification and proper usage.

Additionally, she notes a secondary dimension of smart packaging: smart drug delivery systems. These include technologically enhanced devices like auto-injectors, smart pillboxes, or connected syringes, which offer further layers of verification and ensure patients receive the correct medication and dosage. While this may go beyond traditional packaging, it aligns with the broader goals of improving safety, compliance, and confidence in the pharmaceutical supply chain.

Overall, smart pharma packaging plays a crucial role in combating drug counterfeiting by improving transparency and traceability from production to patient use. By embedding intelligence into packaging and delivery systems, the pharmaceutical industry is better equipped to protect product integrity and ensure patient safety in an increasingly complex global supply chain.

Newquist also comments on the role embedded product intelligence plays in maintaining cold chain integrity, and why is this so critical for pharmaceutical safety and efficacy; how regulatory mandates, such as the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), influence the adoption of smarter packaging technologies across the industry; some of the biggest challenges pharmaceutical companies face in implementing this infrastructure, and much more.

How are regulatory mandates, such as the DSCSA, influencing the adoption of smarter packaging technologies across the industry?

These regulatory mandates, they can be game changers in terms of people adopting this type of technology, because these are difficult systems to implement and they require upfront investment. They require a lot of partners working together—there's a lot of complexity to make these work. When they're regulated, that puts some real fire behind actually having to implement these things.

Specifically, RFID technology is definitely one way that these regulations can be adhered to and can be moved forward. We've definitely seen more interesting questions and people wondering how this can really benefit DSCSA implementation. Serialization is required at the package unit level. RFID can automate some of this, and really help to scale up some of these ways of compliance. It can also provide some additional benefits as well as just compliance with the regulation. They can also help in terms of traceability, inventory management, providing real-time analytics. We definitely have seen that these regulations create a lot of interest and a lot of people are exploring how to implement these solutions so that they can be in compliance.

In the third part of her Pharma Commerce video interview, Kirsten Newquist, Identiv’s CEO, shares the ways in which regulations, including DSCSA, are impacting the adoption of smarter packaging technologies across the industry.

What Is Smart Pharma Packaging?

, Kirsten Newquist, Identiv’s CEO, defines "smart pharma packaging" as the integration of technology into pharmaceutical packaging to enhance product identification, tracking, and patient engagement. She explains that packaging primarily involves embedding technologies such as RFID radio-frequency identification (RFID) or Bluetooth low energy (BLE) into pharmaceutical containers. These technologies assign a unique digital ID to each package, enabling serialization, which is critical for tracking and traceability across the global supply chain.

How would you define “smart pharma packaging,” and how is it helping to combat the growing threat of counterfeit drugs in today’s global supply chain?

In my mind, what that really means is the integration of intelligence or technology into the packaging—in this case, putting an identification on the smart packaging. In the case of radio-frequency identification (RFID) or Bluetooth low energy (BLE) technology—which is a type of technology that my company develops—it's really giving everything a unique digital ID. It enables serialization of the product, which helps with tracking of the product through the supply chain. It helps with enabling traceability. It helps with engagement, once the patient or the pharmacist actually receives the product. It's really about adding this technology and intelligence to the packaging that's used for the pharmaceutical. That’s my primary definition.

There's a secondary one as well, where there's also smart drug delivery packaging. Maybe that goes beyond what your question is, but there is also technology that can be embedded into drug delivery devices, like syringes, auto injectors, or pill boxes that also enable patients to be ensured that they've got the right drug, that they've got the right dose, etc.

First and foremost, it's around true pharmaceutical packaging. Then secondly, I think there's also this pharmaceutical packaging concept that's really more around drug delivery, and in both cases, it really does help with counterfeiting, because it enables you to track the drug through the supply chain and trace it through the supply chain, but also when it gets to the patient or the pharmacist, doctor, or whoever is delivering the drug, they can verify that it is the actual drug, that it is not counterfeit. They can authenticate it and really make sure that it's not a counterfeit drug.

In the first part of her Pharma Commerce video interview, Kirsten Newquist, Identiv’s CEO, defines the term, and explains how it is helping to combat the growing threat of counterfeit drugs in today’s global supply chain.

Preparing for DSCSA Deadlines 

, Jody Hatcher, CEO of Morris & Dickson and chair of HDA’s board of directors

 outlines his vision for the future of the organization and the key priorities he hopes to drive during his tenure. He expresses a strong sense of privilege and responsibility in succeeding Kirk Kaminsky and looks forward to collaborating closely with Debbie Weitzman of Cardinal Health to strengthen connections across the pharmaceutical supply chain.

Hatcher emphasizes the often-overlooked value that distributors bring to the healthcare ecosystem. Representing more than 1,200 manufacturers and serving around 330,000 pharmacies and care providers, he describes distributors as being part of an "irreplaceable network" that plays a vital, behind-the-scenes role in ensuring the availability of medications and healthcare products across the country.

He outlines three main priorities for his leadership. First, he aims to enhance engagement within the distribution community—bringing together pharmacies, manufacturers, and distributors around their shared mission. Second, he highlights the critical importance of implementing the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) across the supply chain. With an extension recently granted, Hatcher underscores the need to meet the updated deadlines to maintain the reliability and integrity of the distribution network.

Lastly, he stresses the importance of storytelling—articulating the value and sophistication of the distribution sector to external audiences. He notes that while distributors are often discussed in various contexts, it's essential to clearly communicate their indispensable role in maintaining a secure and efficient healthcare supply chain.

Overall, Hatcher's vision centers on strengthening collaboration, ensuring compliance, and raising awareness of the distribution sector’s critical contributions.

Hatcher also comments on his day-to-day workflow at Morris & Dickson, including how it supports the efficiency and reliability of the company’s operations; steps that should be taken to ensure DSCSA compliance; types of implications that the potential 25% tariffs on pharmaceuticals can cause; and much more.

With the DSCSA implementation deadlines for pharma supply chain stakeholders fast approaching, what steps should be taken to ensure compliance? Are there any technological or operational adjustments that can help?

DSCSA is a mission-critical priority for every member of HDA. We've had work groups that have had daily and weekly meetings around the HDA table, and HDA has been working deliberately with the FDA on the traceability issues for probably two decades.

At the end of the day, DSCSA fundamentally means that we want to ensure the safe and effective implementation for our customers and for the products that they buy from us. Obviously, the most critical deadline is May 27, when pharmaceutical manufacturers and the repackagers need to meet the criteria in terms of the data at the package level, or have their waivers or exemptions in place, so it's important. It's an important indicator of readiness, not only for the manufacturers, but also for distributors and dispensers, and then for the distributors, for all of us, by Aug. 27, 2025, we've got to be able to receive and trace product from the manufacturers and provide data to our dispensers. We've got to receive and provide EPCIS data at the product unit level. This requires review of processes, such as the practices for returns—which is complicated—product quarantines, testing, and communication.

At the end of the day, I think the message here for all constituents is this has to be a priority, and it involves the technology you've deployed, it involves your systems. I think for all of us, it's really just a shift in the way we work. Our intent, our aim here at Morrison & Dixon, and I think with the rest of HDA, is to make sure that DSCSA is fully integrated into what we do. It's just not optional. And again, I'd like to hope that everybody involved with implementation feels the exact same way.

In the third part of his video interview with Pharma Commerce Editor Nicholas Saraceno, Jody Hatcher, CEO of Morris & Dickson and chair of HDA’s board of directors, comments on the steps needed to achieve Drug Supply Chain Security Act compliance.

Enhancing Pharma Supply Chain Transparency and Trust

, Laura Johnson, senior director of sales, life sciences, Loftware, discusses how supply chain collaboration is becoming increasingly important, particularly in the life sciences and pharmaceutical sectors. According to Johnson, the adoption of cloud-enabled collaborative supply chains is crucial for improving real-time data sharing. This enhances visibility and coordination among internal stakeholders, external suppliers, co-manufacturers, and co-packers, who all play a role in the complex supply chain process.

This collaboration leads to faster decision-making and reduces operational costs, resulting in greater agility. Pharmaceutical organizations are better able to respond to market changes, regulatory updates, label changes, and potential disruptions. In addition, cloud-based systems facilitate regulatory compliance and advanced analytics, enabling more accurate demand forecasting. These systems also optimize inventory management, which directly contributes to improving patient outcomes and accelerating the time to market for new therapies.

Ultimately, cloud-based collaborative supply chains help streamline operations, reduce costs, and improve the overall efficiency of the pharmaceutical industry, benefiting both companies and patients.

companies are exploring new ways to ensure that their products and shipments are protected, why the demand for supply chain transparency is continuing to gain momentum, and much more.

Why is the demand for supply chain transparency continuing to gain momentum, and what role are track-and-trace initiatives playing in that effort?

I've been in the industry for a while, so I was around doing and providing solutions to support, track and trace way back in the beginning. You mentioned RFID was certainly a hot topic, and it continues to be. I think that companies are continuing to embrace track and trace. There's a better understanding that the technology has certainly improved immensely over the past 10 to 15 years, so I think it's easier for them to adopt and get the support, and the funding and things that might be needed to deploy these types of systems.

In general, the adoption of track and trace in life sciences certainly enhances the supply chain transparency. It provides that real-time monitoring of products across the network, from production all the way to patient delivery. I think that's really what the intent of it was back when we started focusing on it, deploying sterilized product, as well as the tagging in different ways, whether it's RFID or two-dimensional barcodes, which are a little bit harder to counterfeit than a standard linear barcode. Getting back to track and trace, it certainly improves regulatory compliance as well, and if needed, it can lead to the ability for brand owners or manufacturers to be able to act very swiftly or quickly, should a recall or something else be needed.

In my opinion, by leveraging technology, organizations can improve data accuracy. They reduce inefficiencies often seen when a brand owner is working with a co-packer or another trading partner, and having track and trace across the entire network certainly helps to build trust with these different stakeholders and eventually the consumer.

In the third part of her video interview with Pharma Commerce Editor Nicholas Saraceno, Laura Johnson, senior director of sales, life sciences, Loftware, discusses why the demand for supply chain transparency is continuing to gain momentum, while also explaining the role that track-and-trace initiatives are playing in that effort.

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