Sunshine State Launches Digital Drug Pedigree

The Florida Department of Health hasdesignated SupplyScape as the firstcertificate authority for Florida electronicdrug pedigrees. The digital certificatesincrease drug security and lowercost throughout the drug supply chain,allowing trade partners to securely andautomatically authenticate the pedigreesfor their drug products.

The integrity and authentications ofthe drug supply and distribution channelshave recently been put under amicroscope. Electronically signed andvalidated pedigree documents translateto substantial cost and time savings forpharmacies, distributors, and manufacturers,versus the labor-intensive manualmechanisms.

Pharmaceutical supply chain membersrealize the immediate benefits ofthe RxCertificates services becausethey verify both the identity and theauthority of the pedigree signatory.Florida mandates that these authorizations(the license to distribute within orinto the state) be authenticated andvalidated in real time by the receiver ofthe pedigree. The digital certificatesissued by RxCertificates can be usedwith any electronic pedigree system.

Drug distributors and pharmaciesmust confirm that each drug supplierhas the proper license to distributedrugs. Without the benefit of Floridaapproveddigital certificates, companiesdistributing pharmaceuticals are facedwith manually confirming, or authenticating,the integrity of each drug'schain of custody back to the manufacturer.Then, the manufacturer is facedwith servicing these manual authenticationrequests.