TraceLink drops HDA legal challenge

TraceLink has abandoned litigation filed last October against the Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA) over the control of pharma track-and-trace data.

The serialization and supply chain network provider filed a legal challenge last year against the HDA, which represents wholesalers and distributors of medicinal products in the US, claiming that the HDA’s Origin database was creating a monopoly on the hosting of product information data generated by the traceability requirements of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA).

In a statement, TraceLink said it had agreed to a dismissal as the two parties had “resolved the misunderstandings” that led to the dispute. TraceLink said the HDA’s position in the market would allow it to persuade or coerce its members to use Origin, effectively shutting out competition from other players including TraceLink’s Life Sciences Cloud product.

They have now agreed to “work together with other industry players to propose interoperable standards and guidelines for pharmaceutical product master data, with the purpose of enabling compliance with the DSCSA.”

The two organizations will collaborate on and submit standards proposals to GS1 US Healthcare for consideration, and to help that process the HDA is going to convene a working group in which TraceLink, and other vendors and supply chain stakeholders, will be able to participate.

“The goal of the work group is to provide a forum to develop a proposal for ultimate submission to GS1 US for its consideration,” said TraceLink, adding: “HDA’s Origin and TraceLink’s Life Sciences Cloud will comply with any standard adopted by GS1 US for master data exchange.”