GS1 will kick off a '2015 Serialization and Visibility Readiness' program this month

On January 13, the first of a series of meetings will be held at GS1’s Lawrenceville, NJ headquarters for pharma and healthcare supply-chain technologists preparing for eventual drug track-and-trace requirements. (the nominal target date is 2015, based on California’s oft-postponed pedigree regulations, but the industry awaits FDA or Congressional action.) Participants (who can be GS1 members or not, although the latter would pay a fee to participate) will bring their knowledge of pharmaceutical distribution practices and capabilities, and experiment with them in a “test engine” that GS1 is developing for supply chain modeling. The participants will also have a hand in continuing the evolution of GS1 standards, including the Electronic Product Code Information Service (EPCIS) and related standards.

According to Bob Celeste, GS1 US Healthcare director, the advantages of participating are gaining experience in serialization and track-and-trace even before a company invests in the technology; a hand in shaping the evolving standards, and access to a supply chain “reference model” that can guide future serialization efforts. “By the end of 2010, participants will have explored numerous forward and reverse logistics process as well as the exception processes that affect them,” says Celeste. “Lastly, we will also be in the position to simulate criminal behavior (injecting counterfeit products at various stages to test the system), the practice of inference and regulatory investigations.”

An on-demand webinar is available, and interested parties can contact Celeste directly at [email protected]