Communicating with Tatmeen for UAE Regulation Compliance
Pharmaceutical businesses operating within the United Arab Emirates (UAE) need to understand the Tatmeen decree and learn how to use the digital platform. All companies within the pharmaceuticals supply chain—not just manufacturers, but companies that transport, store, or dispense pharmaceutical products—must use this platform to comply with GS1 standards.
What is Tatmeen?
Tatmeen is a digital platform developed by the UAE’s Ministry of Health and Prevention that enables the tracking and tracing of all pharmaceutical products in the UAE. Further, Tatmeen also describes the decree by the Ministry of Health that requires all pharmaceutical market participants to communicate with this platform to ensure full transparency.
All conventional and biological medicines must be serialized with a GS1-approved bar code and human-readable tracking information. This information must also be transmitted to the Tatmeen platform to enhance transparency and allow centralized audits.
How does Tatmeen affect my business?
Tatmeen compliance includes two different initiatives based on which aspect of the pharmaceutical market your organization satisfies:
- All market participants: communicate tracking data to the Tatmeen central repository.
- Manufacturers and producers: generate serialized bar codes for all pharmaceutical packaging.
Generating serialized bar codes is a straightforward practice with technical guidelines provided by the Ministry of Health and Prevention. For most organizations, the primary challenge will be establishing secure, reliable, and scalable communication with the Tatmeen platform.
How do I access Tatmeen?
The Tatmeen platform can be accessed in different ways. The simplest, but least scalable option involves using a web browser or mobile application to access the Tatmeen web portal.
However, manual access via web browser introduces some risks. Delays, human error, and challenges with auditing and transparency can easily be introduced to the process. Enterprise organizations should consider automating Tatmeen communication, to ensure accuracy and scalability.
How to automate and scale communication with Tatmeen
Tatmeen supports industry-standard B2B protocols that include digital encryption, authentication, and non-repudiation.
Since these B2B protocols are implemented by software solutions, they are well-suited for automation. Automated communication with Tatmeen ensures that organizations don’t need to worry about the costly effects of human error.
Tatmeen provides technical specifications for implementing these B2B protocols and automating communication with Tatmeen. Tatmeen supports AS4 communication, which has become standard across Europe and Asia.
AS4 is the key to Tatmeen success
Communicating with Tatmeen becomes much easier with AS4 communication. While it is possible to communicate through manual processes, implementing AS4 will enable your organization to take advantage of the benefits of automation and improve the security and reliability of your communication with regulators.
What is AS4?
AS4 has long been the dominant communication standard for European business. It’s a protocol that governs data transmission between parties, and it has several key features:
- Messages are sent directly from sender to receiver over the web (HTTP messages).
- Messages are encrypted and signed to ensure security and the validity of the sender.
- The payload of messages can be defined as XML schema documents (XSDs).
- Messages are automatically acknowledged so that non-repudiation is guaranteed.
Given these benefits, AS4 is a popular choice among data infrastructure experts. Using robust B2B integration tools makes AS4 implementation much simpler.
How to streamline AS4 adoption
Adopting AS4 doesn’t have to be a lengthy and expensive process—modern B2B integration platforms have already done much of the work, so you can quickly begin sending AS4 messages.
Tatmeen regulations are already in effect, so it is important to prioritize B2B integration solutions that are easy to use and quick to set up. CData Arc was built on these two principles, making it an excellent choice for organizations that need to implement AS4 protocols quickly.
How CData Arc simplifies AS4
CData Arc has been providing Drummond-certified AS4 integration technologies for over a decade, making it a trusted tool for AS4 implementation.
But Arc doesn’t merely settle for providing AS4 capabilities – it simplifies the AS4 implementation process to minimize overhead. Arc’s AS4 connections are established with a few simple connection parameters – like an identifier, a URL, and a digital certificate. Your EU member state will provide this information as you begin the process of acquiring Tatmeen specifications.
Arc also simplifies the process of building an AS4 message payload. AS4 is built on top of XML, the primary format that Arc uses for data manipulation. As a result, the process of building an AS4 message containing the required payment information fits neatly within the architecture of Arc’s workflows.
CData Arc provides no-code, drag-and-drop mapping tools to easily build XML structures containing exactly the payment transaction data you need. Connecting these mapping tools to your AS4 connection in the Arc visual flow designer makes the communication process with Tatmeen simple and quick.
Get started with AS4 in CData Arc
Interested in learning more about Arc’s robust AS4 capabilities for Tatmeen compliance? Get started by trying out Arc for yourself with a free, fully functional trial.
If you’d like more personalized help, feel free to reach out to arcsupport@cdata.com.