Cencora’s Ameer Ali is sending a clear message to pharmaceutical supply chain stakeholders: the time to begin planning for the shift to NDC-12 is right now.
Ali, senior director of manufacturer operations and data services at Cencora, has been speaking with Pharmaceutical Commerce as part of its coverage of HDA’s 2026 Traceability Seminar.
His presentation at the seminar, titled “Readying Supply Chain Systems and Packaging to Transact NDC-12,” set out the practical groundwork manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors need to lay before the transition arrives.
For those still in the early stages of mapping out their approach, Ali’s advice is direct and unambiguous: start building a roadmap now, and make sure it reflects how much work is genuinely involved.
Ali is encouraging companies to complete a thorough assessment of their internal systems and processes within the next few months, before further regulatory guidance lands.
A wave of updated EDI guidelines, EPCIS standards and bar coding standards, along with added regulatory clarity, is expected before the end of the year, giving organisations a clearer picture of what full compliance will require.
With that guidance anticipated, Ali recommends that businesses use the coming months productively, getting internal assessments done so they are ready to act quickly once the standards are confirmed.
He advises building a roadmap that works backward from the effective date, carefully accounting for the level of effort, resources and internal dependencies involved, since some systems will need to be updated before others can follow.
Getting that plan in front of trading partners early is also a priority, as sharing the roadmap in advance helps ensure the broader supply chain is ready to test in sync rather than scrambling to catch up at the last minute.
Ali is candid about what the transition period will actually look like on the ground, warning that distributors should expect to handle 10-digit and 12-digit NDCs simultaneously, sometimes for exactly the same product.
This overlap will occur because a manufacturer may ship a 12-digit unit before a distributor has fully completed its own transition, creating a period where both formats need to be processed correctly without disruption.
The practical complexity of that parallel running period underlines why early preparation is so critical, and why companies that delay their assessments risk being caught out when the effective date approaches.
Ali’s guidance reflects a broader industry recognition that the NDC-12 shift is not a straightforward technical update but a significant operational change touching systems, packaging, trading partner relationships and regulatory compliance simultaneously.