With the growing list of pharmaceutical companies embarking on the process of incorporating digital transformation strategies in their operations, SAP helps complete an industry-wide pilot to assist customers in achieving supply chain compliance. The latest functionality integrated with SAP pharma solutions utilises self-sovereign identity (SSI) technology to establish trust in digital interactions between authorised trading partners (ATP) in the supply chain.
SAP has chosen an open, interoperable technology to validate all stakeholders in the pharma supply chain in order to provide customers with the best solution for compliance under the U.S. Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) requirements. The DSCSA also limits stakeholders’ interactions to ATPs.
In the pilot, SAP has proved the ability of SSI technology to validate ATP status in indirect trade relationships by collaborating with key industry participants including SAP partner and wallet provider Spherity GmbH, verifiable credentials issuer Legisym LLC, and rfxcel, a digital supply chain traceability solutions provider.
By integrating with Spherity’s Credentialing Service, SAP’s verification routing service solution has been able to share and verify the ATP status in product verifications. Dr. Oliver Nuernberg, Chief Product Owner at SAP, said in a statement:
“For SAP, one of the key requirements was to ensure that the existing returns verification process is not impacted by adding credentialing. By making the credentialing optional, we further ensure that our customers can add this capability over time without disrupting existing processes.”
Meanwhile, pharma giant Novartis is looking to adopt the integrated solution. Dave Mason, Novartis Americas Supply Chain Compliance and Serialisation Lead, commented:
“The inability to verify the identity and authorized trading partner status of companies requesting verification put us at risk for noncompliance. The use of verifiable credentials ensures that we can establish trust across the supply chain and that we comply to the letter of the law.”
The Role of SAP Pharma Solutions in Digital Transformation
SAP continues to help companies across the pharma industry explore the benefits of its cutting-edge technologies. The software giant’s industry-leading solutions portfolio consisting of SAP Advanced Track and Trace for Pharmaceuticals (SAP ATTP) and SAP Information Collaboration Hub for Life Sciences supports a joint effort to eliminate counterfeits in the supply chain.
Furthermore, the software giant also unveiled its Vaccine Collaboration Hub (VCH) in October 2020 to help governments and their industry partner organisations improve supply chain efficiency and effectively manage their mass vaccination projects. The VCH’s launch is a testament to SAP’s commitment to providing critical infrastructure that makes collaboration between network partners faster.
The new functionality integrated with SAP pharma solutions is expected to be available to existing customers of the SAP Information Collaboration Hub for Life Sciences in May 2021. Matt Laukaitis, SAP Consumer Industries Global General Manager, has emphasised the importance of digital transformation in the life sciences industry in order to effectively and quickly address public health needs. He said:
“This work is yet another example of SAP’s leadership with the life sciences ecosystem of partners and customers to address their industry-specific solution requirements. By establishing an efficient process for transmitting and verifying authorized trading partner status, the supply chain is more safe and secure.”
Moreover, SAP also plans to participate in the newly founded Open Credentialing Initiative (OCI) to drive the utilisation of SSI technology across the sector.
