Independent

GDP-UCI is a democratically governed social enterprise that is neutral, fully independent and open to all organisations that are active in the field of GDP and related areas. It is not a vested- interest grouping of any kind and, while pushing the benefits of GDP and facilitating regulatory compliance, it is not promoting, protecting or controlled by, any specific business interests or factional groups. 

Our Goals

The GDP·UCI as part of the overall compliance mix has a number of overall goals that make it relevant in a world of rapid change and disruption. Amongst these is the provision of GDP support and the creation of a logistics standardisation framework that is global, consistent, simplified, standardised, scalable, adaptable and affordable. Ultimately everyone involved with GDP has the end goal of improving patient safety and patient outcomes. However to achieve this involves a complex synthesis of many different quality assurance factors, with adherence to GDP being just one part of the equation. The inefficiencies and isolationism that continue to bedevil the GDP compliance process are firmly embedded and are not going to be solved by individual actors working, however frantically and intensely, in isolated silos. Optimum solutions can only be found through the alignment of the interests of multiple parties in which individual self-interest feeds into the common good. 

The Need

Recent research indicates that there is a widespread need, and growing support, for a more consistent and universal approach to good distribution practice (GDP) throughout the pharmaceutical supply chain. The call is particularly acute at the operational level where there is a demand for a framework that supports a more systematic and comprehensible compliance process in the face of regulatory pressures, increasingly labile and valuable drugs, increasingly convoluted delivery systems, and a growing risk of criminal interference. And with the legal liability for GDP compliance starting to extend into the heart of the pharma distribution chain, the added complexity that this engenders further emphasises the need to simplify the compliance process at the point of execution. To this end, a large group of stakeholders in the global pharmaceutical supply chain has come together with the objective of designing and executing a global GDP compliance program that advantageously 'joins up' the profusion of stakeholders, regulations, and quality processes that constitute the pharmaceutical distribution chain. 

About

GDP-UCI is a pragmatic industry-led program with a prime focus of facilitating and simplifying adherence to the GDP regulations and guidelines that are in place and in making GDP compliance more uniform, consistent, efficient, risk-free and practical. It is achieving these goals through the involvement and alignment of all the supply chain parties and disciplines that are involved in, or affected by, the GDP regulations and guidelines and it is this collaborative approach that distinguishes it from other industry bodies that are active in this space. GDP-UCI is not an attempt to rewrite the regulations relating to good distribution practice. Instead, GDP-UCI aims to introduce new concepts for achieving, demonstrating and recording GDP compliance, to introduce the means for meaningful GDP measurement for comparison, benchmarking and continuous improvement purposes, and to create a more harmonised GDP training environment. 