It has develop into more and more vital for healthcare executives to watch the pharmaceutical provide chain, essentially as overdose deaths associated with counterfeit tablet use greater than doubled from July-Sept. 2019 to Oct.-Dec. 2021, consistent with the CDC.
The FDA sought to handle the problem by way of enacting the Drug Provide Chain Safety Act (DSCSA), which went into impact in November. Nonetheless, healthcare executives autonomously desire a cohesive method to track the pharmaceutical provide chain.
Gee Mathen, director of pharmacy scientific programs and technical products and services at Texas Kids’s Health facility, will deal with the problem in a consultation at HIMSS World Convention & Exhibition in Orlando subsequent week entitled, “Preventing Counterfeit Medication and the Drug Provide Chain Safety Act.”
Mathen shared some highlights of his upcoming consultation with MobiHealthNews and what he hopes attendees will be informed from the dialogue.
MobiHealthNews: Are you able to supply some highlights of your HIMSS24 consultation?
Gee Mathen: My consultation will quilt the subject of ways DSCSA will affect the aid of counterfeit medicine within the healthcare sector. The consultation will focal point at the legislation and the significance of it. The worldwide marketplace has now observed a whole shift into how unhealthy actors can affect affected person care, and the presentation will spotlight how all of the procedure is impacted from manufacturing to the affected person.
MHN: Are counterfeit medicine a large downside within the healthcare sector?
Mathen: Counterfeit medicine are a significant factor in U.S. healthcare, posing a risk to public well being. Whilst the precise share is unknown, estimates counsel a good portion of the U.S. drug marketplace is infiltrated by way of counterfeits.
Those pretend medicines incessantly lack very important elements, rendering them useless in treating diseases. In some instances, counterfeit medicine comprise wrong dosages or damaging ingredients, resulting in critical well being headaches.
Past person hurt, counterfeit medicine additionally purpose financial harm by way of undermining reliable pharmaceutical companies. The advanced and world nature of counterfeit operations makes it a difficult downside to handle. In spite of efforts to improve the U.S. drug provide chain, extra steps wish to be taken to give protection to our sufferers.
MHN: How is DSCSA necessary to making sure affected person protection?
Mathen: The Drug Provide Chain Safety Act performs a a very powerful function in safeguarding affected person protection by way of setting up a track-and-trace machine for prescribed drugs right through all of the provide chain.
The program permits for the verification of the authenticity and foundation of every drugs, serving to to spot and save you the distribution of counterfeit medicine. Through enforcing stricter security features inside the provide chain, DSCSA reduces the chance of sufferers receiving useless or damaging counterfeit medicines.
Moreover, DSCSA complements traceability in case of drug recollects, enabling government to temporarily and successfully take away compromised medicines from the marketplace. This advanced traceability additionally facilitates investigations into counterfeit drug operations, probably resulting in the disruption of those unlawful actions.
In the long run, the Act empowers sufferers to have higher self assurance within the integrity and protection of the prescribed drugs they obtain.
Whilst the implementation of the DSCSA is ongoing, it represents a vital step ahead in protective sufferers from the risks of counterfeit medicine and selling a more secure healthcare surroundings.
MHN: What do you hope attendees be informed out of your consultation?
Mathen: I’m hoping the consultation will give a spotlight of what we realized in our means of monitoring drug provide from manufacturing to the affected person. There might be insights on how era will play the most important function in combating counterfeit medicines within the machine as of late.
The 2024 HIMSS World Well being Convention & Exhibition takes position on March 11-15, 2024, in Orlando, Florida. Be informed extra and sign up.