In partnership with the Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA) and the Center for Supply Chain Studies, Spherity implemented with global pharmaceutical manufacturers, wholesalers, SAP, rfxcel and Legisym a solution to verify the Authorized Trading Partner (ATP) status in the context of the US Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA).
Based on Spherity’s Cloud Identity Wallet, the pilot group establishes a Verifiable Credential based ecosystem to support existing Product Identifier Verification scenarios for DSCSA saleable returns. The DSCSA requires US pharmaceutical supply chain actors to prove that they only interact with trading partners that are “authorized”. Trading partners are “authorized” when they hold as a wholesaler a state license and as manufacturer a FDA Entity Identifier that is valid at the time of interaction.
An identity layer built on Decentralized Identifiers and with Verifiable Credentials enables manufacturers, wholesalers and dispensers to identify any previously unknown trading partner and to verify it’s Authorized Trading Partner status in real time. The Authorized Trading Partner pilot group implemented a solution by utilizing the existing GS1 Lightweight Messaging Standard for the exchange of Product Identifier (PI) Verification messages between trading partners. With the Authorized Trading Partner pilot implementation, a trading partner or Verification Routing Service (VRS) provider can attach the Authorized Trading Partner Credential to the header of the Product Identifier (PI) Verification request or response message.
The Authorized Trading Partner credential traveling with the Product Identifier (PI) Verification message is issued and maintained by providers such as Legisym. Legisym has a database of state license and FDA Entity Identifier (FEI) records for pharmaceutical companies. This validated and trusted source is used to issue Authorized Trading Partner credentials to trading partners. Without having an own direct access to a registry of state licenses, every trading partner in the ecosystem can now verify the Authorized Trading Partner status of other actors in a more efficient way.
