2018-20502. Product Identifiers Under the Drug Supply Chain Security Act Questions and Answers; Draft Guidance for Industry; Availability

AGENCY:

Food and Drug Administration, HHS.

ACTION:

Notice of availability.

SUMMARY:

The Food and Drug Administration FDA or Agency) is announcing the availability of a draft guidance for industry entitled “Product Identifiers Under the Drug Supply Chain Security Act Questions and Answers.” This draft guidance intends to clarify questions relating to product identifiers that are required by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), as amended by the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) for packages and homogenous cases of certain drug products. Sections of the FD&C Act require manufacturers and repackagers to affix or imprint a product identifier to each package and homogenous case of a product intended to be introduced in a transaction into commerce beginning November 27, 2017, and November 28, 2018, respectively. This draft guidance intends to clarify these requirements.

DATES:

Submit either electronic or written comments on the draft guidance by November 19, 2018 to ensure that the Agency considers your comment on this draft guidance before it begins work on the final version of the guidance. Submit either electronic or written comments concerning the collection of information proposed in the draft guidance by November 19, 2018.

ADDRESSES:

You may submit comments as follows:

Electronic Submissions

Submit electronic comments in the following way:

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Comments submitted electronically, including attachments, to https://www.regulations.gov will be posted to the docket unchanged. Because your comment will be made public, you are solely responsible for ensuring that your comment does not include any confidential information that you or a third party may not wish to be posted, such as medical information, your or anyone else's Social Security number, or confidential business information, such as a manufacturing process. Please note that if you include your name, contact information, or other information that identifies you in the body of your comments, that information will be posted on https://www.regulations.gov.
• If you want to submit a comment with confidential information that you do not wish to be made available to the public, submit the comment as a written/paper submission and in the manner detailed (see “Written/Paper Submissions” and “Instructions”).

Written/Paper Submissions

Submit written/paper submissions as follows:

• Mail/Hand delivery/Courier (for written/paper submissions): Dockets Management Staff (HFA-305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.
• For written/paper comments submitted to the Dockets Management Staff, FDA will post your comment, as well as any attachments, except for information submitted, marked, and identified, as confidential, if submitted as detailed in “Instructions.”

Instructions: All submissions received must include the Docket No. FDA-2018-D-3175 for “Product Identifiers Under the Drug Supply Chain Security Act Questions and Answers.” Received comments will be placed in the docket and, except for those submitted as “Confidential Submissions,” publicly viewable at https://www.regulations.gov or at the Dockets Management Staff between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

• Confidential Submissions—To submit a comment with confidential information that you do not wish to be made publicly available, submit your comments only as a written/paper submission. You should submit two copies total. One copy will include the information you claim to be confidential with a heading or cover note that states “THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION.” The Agency will review this copy, including the claimed confidential information, in its consideration of comments. The second copy, which will have the claimed confidential information redacted/blacked out, will be available for public viewing and posted on https://www.regulations.gov. Submit both copies to the Dockets Management Staff. If you do not wish your name and contact information to be made publicly available, you can provide this information on the cover sheet and not in the body of your comments and you must identify this information as “confidential.” Any information marked as “confidential” will not be disclosed except in accordance with 21 CFR 10.20 and other applicable disclosure law. For more information about FDA's posting of comments to public dockets, see 80 FR 56469, September 18, 2015, or access the information at: https://www.gpo.gov/​fdsys/​pkg/​FR-2015-09-18/​pdf/​2015-23389.pdf.

Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or the electronic and written/paper comments received, go to https://www.regulations.gov and insert the docket number, found in brackets in the heading of this document, into the “Search” box and follow the prompts and/or go to the Dockets Management Staff, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.

You may submit comments on any guidance at any time (see 21 CFR 10.115(g)(5)).

Submit written requests for single copies of the draft guidance to the Division of Drug Information, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, 10001 New Hampshire Ave., Hillandale Building, 4th Floor, Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002; or to the Office of Communication, Outreach and Development, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 71, Rm. 3128, Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002. Send one self-addressed adhesive label to assist that office in processing your requests. See the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section for electronic access to the draft guidance document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Tia Harper-Velazquez, Office of Compliance, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002, 301-796-3130, [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

The DSCSA (Title II of Pub. L. 113-54) was signed into law on November 27, 2013. Section 202 of the DSCSA added section 582 to the FD&C Act (21 U.S.C. 360eee-1). This section establishes product tracing, product identifier, and verification requirements for manufacturers, repackagers, wholesale distributors, and dispensers to facilitate the tracing of products through the pharmaceutical distribution supply chain. Failure to comply with the requirements of section 582 is a prohibited act under section 301(t) of the FD&C Act (21 U.S.C. 331(t)).

The effective date for manufacturers to “affix or imprint a product identifier to each package and homogenous case of a product intended to be introduced in a transaction into commerce” under section 582(b)(2)(A) of the FD&C Act, is not later than November 27, 2017. In June 2017, FDA published a draft guidance entitled “Product Identifier Requirements Under the Drug Supply Chain Security Act—Compliance Policy,” in which FDA describes its intention regarding the enforcement of certain product identifiers under the DSCSA. As described in the draft guidance, FDA does not intend to take action against manufacturers who do not affix or imprint a product identifier to each package and homogenous case of products intended to be introduced in a transaction into commerce before November 26, 2018. This represents a 1-year delay in enforcement of the requirement for manufacturers to affix or imprint product identifiers. The effective date for repackagers to “affix or imprint a product identifier to each package and homogenous case of a product intended to be introduced in a transaction in commerce” under section 582(e)(2)(A) of the FD&C Act, is not later than November 27, 2018.

This guidance is intended to assist manufacturers and repackagers in understanding the requirements to affix or imprint a product identifier on each package and homogenous case of product that they introduce in a transaction into commerce to satisfy the product identifier requirement of section 582 of the FD&C Act. The recommendations in this guidance are intended to assist manufacturers and repackagers in standardizing both the human-readable and machine-readable format of the information that is contained in the product identifier. This guidance also intends to clarify that these requirements do not change the linear barcode requirements.

This draft guidance is being issued consistent with FDA's good guidance practices regulation (21 CFR 10.115). The draft guidance, when finalized, will represent the current thinking of FDA on “Product Identifiers Under the Supply Chain Security Act Questions and Answers.” It does not establish any rights for any person and is not binding on FDA or the public. You can use an alternative approach if it satisfies the requirements of the applicable statutes and regulations. This guidance is not subject to Executive Order 12866.

II. Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995

This draft guidance includes information collection provisions that are subject to review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520) (PRA). In accordance with the PRA, prior to publication of any final guidance document, FDA intends to solicit public comment and obtain OMB approval for any information collections recommended in this guidance that are new or that would represent material modifications to those previously approved collections of information found in FDA regulations or guidances.

III. Electronic Access

Persons with access to the internet may obtain the draft guidance at either https://www.fda.gov/​Drugs/​GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/​Guidances/​default.htm or https://www.regulations.gov.

Dated: September 14, 2018.

Leslie Kux,

Associate Commissioner for Policy.