Deloitte white paper highlights why common standards across healthcare supply chain are essential

As governments and businesses around the world face one of the most significant challenges in history – an unprecedented rapid mass development, distribution, and administration of Covid-19 vaccines – a new report issued by Deloitte points to universal adoption of global standards across the healthcare supply chain worldwide to enable fast, efficient, and safe distribution.

Global public health officials have reinforced those sentiments, with Tom Woods, Chairman of the Global Steering Committee for Quality Assurance of Health Products for the World Bank, calling for the adoption of common standards including barcode scanning, 'the most important and under-discussed element in preventing vaccine distribution failures and ensuring traceability and patient safety in the COVID-19 vaccination campaign'.

The Deloitte study, "Securing Trust in the Global COVID-19 Supply Chain," argues that, in addition to industry collaboration and transparent communication, "embracing GS1 standards adds an element of trust at all levels of the supply chain – a trust that ultimately extends to the patients themselves".

GS1 global standards enable pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributing companies and healthcare providers to follow protocols and safety measures critical to ensuring public trust and confidence, both in the vaccine itself and the ability to roll out vaccinations safely.