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HDA 2026 Traceability Seminar: From Implementation to Interoperability

What comes next for DSCSA OPERATIONS AND INTEROPERABILITY

Thirteen years after DSCSA became law, the industry’s focus is shifting from implementation to sustained operation. At the 2026 HDA Traceability Seminar, discussions increasingly centered on what happens when requirements meet operating reality: exception management, data quality, inspection readiness, trading-partner dependencies, and interoperability across an increasingly complex pharmaceutical ecosystem.

The greatest risks now sit at the intersections of systems, standards, data, partners, and processes

Our conference readout synthesizes key takeaways from the seminar, including lessons from DSCSA implementation, NDC-12 readiness, barcode and EDI interoperability, exception handling, third-party dependencies, and the importance of preserving the knowledge and capabilities built over the past decade.

The experience of DSCSA also provides an important lesson for what comes next:

work backward from where the transaction ultimately has to succeed, identify the most significant constraints early, and test the handoffs between participants, systems, and processes

As NDC-12 extends product identification into an even broader network of retail, clinical, financial, government, and technology systems, that lesson becomes increasingly important.

Read the full HDA Traceability Seminar synthesis for the key developments we heard, what they mean for the industry, and four actions organizations can begin taking now:
  1. Identify
  2. Assess
  3. Coordinate
  4. Test
Read NEXT: The Next Episode | What 13 Years of DSCSA Teach Us About NDC-12 and Pharmaceutical Interoperability – Rx-360 – The International Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Consortium

Follow the Author

Ryan Kelly is Rx-360’s Senior Director of Supply Chain Security & Brand Protection. Inquire to join his Supply Chain Security and Direct-to-Consumer Pharmaceutical Programs working groups.