Poll: 1 in 3 Pharmacies Have Earlier DSCSA Serialization Deadline
This week, hospitals and retail pharmacies joined a live TraceLink webcast to review learnings from our report,
Live
One-third of poll respondents said they’re subject to regulatory deadlines sooner than 2020.
The majority are pharmacy operations that loan, borrow, or resell
Other poll results of note from the webcast:
Only 58% of respondents said their pharmacy operation is compliant with DSCSA lot-level regulations.
This is surprisingly low considering
9% of respondents said they still weren’t compliant, nearly two years after the regulation was put into place. This is roughly the same percentage that hadn’t yet addressed compliance based on our 2015 data, so progress still needs to be made.
General awareness of the 2020 requirement is improving – but a lack of deeper knowledge prevails.
According to our poll, there is some improved awareness among dispensers about the 2020 DSCSA regulation. Only 7.5% of hospitals and pharmacies said they were unfamiliar with the 2020 serialization requirement – compared to nearly one-third that lacked that basic knowledge in our original report data.
That number roughly triples, however, when it comes to the 2023 electronic traceability requirement – 23% of respondents are not familiar with the regulation.
When it comes to being familiar with the details of the regulations, a large majority of dispensers simply aren't. A whopping 79% said they were not familiar with the details of the 2020 requirement; 64% said the same of the 2023 requirement.
Some dispensers are on the right path toward an electronic-only future.
With manufacturers required to send compliance documentation electronically by November, and a digital-only unit-level traceability system on the horizon for 2023, transitioning now to a digital system is a recommended best practice.
3 out of 4 dispensers in our polling said they’re already receiving electronic documentation the majority of the time, and 8% said they’re now fully, 100% electronic. Only 2% said
If a review of the DSCSA timeline illustrates anything for dispensers, it should be this: As you continue preparing for future DSCSA regulations, understand what's involved in the 2020 and 2023 dispenser requirements, but also look at the dates coming up sooner. Set your readiness plans based on the operations your business conducts within the supply chain – that determines your pharmacy operation’s requirements and deadlines.
For more details, check out the on-demand replay of the webinar. The one-hour presentation includes:
- 4 lessons learned from DSCSA
lot-level experiences. - A complete rundown of DSCSA deadlines, from 2015 to 2023.
- How the activity of upstream partners can affect dispensers’ processes.
- Next steps to prepare for future compliance requirements.