Rx-360 Takes on Europe, Talks to PharmTech About Shared Audits

The international pharmaceutical supply-chain consortium Rx-360 held a launch meeting in Europe last week with more than 135 industry and regulatory representatives in attendance. According to an Rx-360 release, meeting participants focused on the global impact of counterfeit drug products and discussed the challenges involved in creating a nonprofit, voluntary consortium that will focus on shared supplier audits and disseminating supply-chain information and standards throughout the world. The consortium held a US-launch meeting for pharmaceutial and  biotechnology companies, suppliers, and regulators in June 2009 in Washington, DC (see back story, Pharma Industry Consortium Rx-360 Tackles Supply-Chain Security.)

Another European-based initiative from the growing consortium is its new homepage widget featuring a searachable database of suppliers that have been certified by the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and Healthcare (EDQM). Established in 1994, the EDQM program specifically certifies the suitability of the monographs in the European Pharmacopoeia to adequately control the quality of a substance from the source.

Pharmaceutical Technology spoke to the director of EDQM, Susanne Keitel, and the head of Rx-360, Martin Van Trieste, among others, as part of a roundtable earlier this fall. The speakers’ full talks are available to listen to in podcast format on the PharmTech website.

See related PharmTech articles:

Is Industry Ready to Share Supplier Audits? Rx-360 Takes a Shot (blog post)

Sharing Supply-Chain Security (PharmTech November 2009 cover story)