Ameer Ali, senior director of manufacturer operations and data services at Cencora, is urging trading partners to begin preparing their systems for the NDC-12 transition long before the rule takes effect.
Ali made the comments ahead of his session at the HDA 2026 Traceability Seminar, titled “Readying Supply Chain Systems and Packaging to Transact NDC-12,” where he will address preparation across multiple operational fronts.
His remarks came in the second installment of an interview with Pharmaceutical Commerce, focusing on the practical risks facing companies that delay their transition planning.
The shift from NDC-10 to NDC-12 will not happen overnight, as manufacturers must first deplete existing inventory and packaging materials before converting their product lines.
That gradual rollout creates a period where both formats will be active simultaneously across the pharmaceutical supply chain, placing significant demands on receiving systems throughout the industry.
Ali warns that if a trading partner’s EDI system, master data, ERP order creation or warehouse scanners are not updated in time, product can effectively stop moving through the supply chain entirely.
Goods risk becoming unreceivable on one end of the chain or unshippable on the other if systems on either side of a transaction cannot handle both NDC formats at once.
Ali is clear that the law’s built-in transition period should not be mistaken for a buffer that allows companies to delay their preparation work until close to the deadline.
He argues that real testing must be built in well before Day One, with companies needing to confirm their systems function correctly in live conditions rather than discovering problems in production.
Waiting to find out whether systems work in a live environment, Ali says, simply is not an option given the stakes involved for product movement and supply chain continuity.
His session at the HDA 2026 Traceability Seminar will cover what manufacturers, wholesalers and packagers should be doing now across EDI, back-office systems, DSCSA processes and packaging lines.
The broader message from Ali is that NDC-12 readiness is not a compliance checkbox to be handled close to the effective date, but a multi-year operational undertaking requiring immediate action.