Saudi Arabia

v. 28 – Q4 2023

Market Executive Summary Phased implementation, starting with 2D coding through consolidation on GS1 standards to serialization and finally expected traceability based on government database.

Focus remains on establishment of the GS1 – compliant coding at all packaging levels.

The traceability system guidance has now been updated.

COVID-19 Update: SFDA postponed the aggregation (as well as integration) implementation deadline to June 30, 2020 (initially March 31, 2020) due to the COVID-19 situation. Outbound reporting of aggregation data is also postponed together with the aggregation data itself.

Aggregation was later postponed until August 20, 2020.

Key Dates
  • January 2020: Reporting implementation to be phase in from January 2020
  • December 2019: Scope limited to human pharmaceuticals only. Vet products will not be required during initial phase
  • November 2019: Level of barcoding required on level of aggregation to include carton/case/outer pack and pallet
  • September 2019: Tamper-Evident Packaging required

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