The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) is putting a full court press on the opioid crisis, and unit-dose packaging looks to be part of the team.

As 2017 heads toward the final quarter and the time intended for the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) to implement step 1, i.e., all pharma manufacturers distributing only serialized primary containers into the supply chain, we’ve learned a few things.

In 1970, Richard Nixon signed into law the Poison Prevention Packaging Act (PPPA). The act was written in response to a growing number of child poisonings from unintentional ingestion of drugs and other products. The Act was successful, but a lot has changed in the last 47 years.

The recently introduced Bill HR 1245 IH, the ‘‘Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Act’’ attempts to open the door to lower cost drugs via Canadian pharmacies.

It’s 2017! If you are expecting groundbreaking news from the world of pharmaceutical safety, you may have to wait a while. Let’s get a quick status report.

As fall 2016 kicks in, pharmaceutical manufacturers and those involved in the supply chain are grappling with the roll out of The Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA).

As mid-2016 passes by, the pharmaceutical packaging world is surrounded by serialization and DSCSA (Drug Supply Chain Security Act) activity.

The pharmaceutical industry is focused on the rollout of the Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA) and improving the “safety of the supply chain”. Unfortunately, the problems surrounding opioid abuse happen in or after pharmacy.

The U.S. incurs an estimated loss of $300 billion due to poor medication adherence every year. Thankfully in the last 8 – 10 years CMS (the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) has been working to resolve this problem.

Lately, the phrase pharmaceutical safety conjures up images of 2D bar codes, discussions of serialization and pedigree, 10 years of rolling implementation of the Federal Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA) but pharmaceutical safety means something much more basic and, sadly, long overlooked.