NDC COORDINATION AND IMPLEMENTATION FORUM
For Pharmaceutical
Wholesalers and Distributers
You're the hub between every manufacturer and every pharmacy you serve.
A misalignment on either side becomes your problem.
FDA's 12-digit NDC format takes effect in 2033, and unlike DSCSA, there's no phased rollout. Every trading partner needs to be ready at the same time. The NDC Forum is where wholesalers get visibility into both manufacturer, customer, and vendor readiness, and a direct seat in the Strike Forces coordinating cross-partner testing.
The Challenge
Wholesalers sit between manufacturers and every pharmacy, provider, and health system they serve, which means your strategy has to work with both sides at once. NDC-12 touches nearly everything you run: inventory management, ordering systems, product catalogs, warehouse operations, reporting, and trading-partner data exchanges. A misalignment on either side of you becomes an operational problem on your side of the ledger.
Your systems have to reconcile manufacturer-side data changes with customer-side expectations, simultaneously
Dual-format operations (2033–2036) mean your inventory, ordering, and warehouse systems must resolve 10-, 11-, and 12-digit identifiers to the same product without error
A single unresolved dependency anywhere in your network can cascade to every downstream site you serve
You have the most to lose from a coordination failure you didn't cause
How the Forum Helps
Get visibility into both manufacturer and customer readiness at the same time, instead of managing two separate blind spots.
Identify operational risks early, while there's still time to plan around them instead of reacting to them.
Participate directly in discussions shaping the broader supply chain, including testing approaches and barcode strategy that affect your warehouse and ordering systems directly.
Coordinate testing with trading partners on both sides of your business, ahead of the critical 2030–2032 testing window.
Why DSCSA Experience Isn't the Same as NDC-12 Readiness
If your compliance team built serialization and traceability infrastructure for DSCSA, that work is real and it doesn't go away. It's also not the same problem.
DSCSA rolled out in phases, with manufacturers first, then wholesalers, then dispensers, and regulatory flexibility along the way. NDC-12 requires every trading partner ready at the same time, with no equivalent grace period once the hybrid period ends.
A serialization or track-and-trace vendor can confirm your own systems handle both formats. They can't confirm that the manufacturers you order from and the pharmacies you supply are moving on your same schedule.
Conference sessions and trade-association panels are valuable for a snapshot of where the industry stands, but they aren't a standing mechanism for testing readiness with your actual trading partners between now and 2033.
The Forum is where that ongoing, cross-partner testing coordination actually happens: not a once-a-year conversation, but a continuous one.
You already know you're the node every misalignment runs through. Strike Force participation, where the actual cross-partner testing coordination happens, is member-only. Observation from the sidelines only gets you visibility; it doesn't get you a seat in the room shaping how testing gets sequenced.
Get Involved
Organizational Membership
Annual Membership
$5,000
per organization
Unlimited participants from your organization
Access to all quarterly forums, strike forces, and other events
Full access to tools, outputs, and shared resources
Per-Participant Access
Virtual
Quarterly Forums
$399
per person
In-Person
Forums
TBD
per person
Attend quarterly forums on a per-person basis, ideal for organizations exploring participation before committing to full membership.
2026 Forum Dates:
September 23
December 8-9
Strike force participation available to organizational members only.