GS1 Healthcare included a master data strategy as part of its key strategic objectives for 2018.

The programme will strive to establish a global data set based on published regulation for serialisation and traceability.

This paves the way for pharmaceutical suppliers to share data via the GDSN with all customers worldwide. It also establishes a common data dictionary, which supports serialisation as well as regulations such as the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) and the EU Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD).