European Medicines Verification Organisation Explained

The European Medicines Verification Organisation was established by the European Commission to administer the Falsified Medicines Directive in 2015. The legal basis is Regulation (EC) No. 726/2004 and Directive 2001/83/EC.[1]

The main stakeholders are:

All prescription medicines must have a unique identifier, which is embedded in a two-dimensional Data Matrix code and packaging must have a tamper verification feature. The organisation maintains a database of unique identifiers supplied pharmaceutical suppliers in respect of each unit of sale package they manufacture or repackage. It contains:

In August 2018 the organisation warned that only 841 of the 2,291 pharmaceutical companies with marketing authorisations to supply prescription medicines to the European Economic Area had completed the first stage of connection to the EU Hub, which may take up to six months.[4]

The system went live on 9 February 2019.

External References

The Official website of the European Medicines Verification Organisation

Notes and References

  1. News: Healthcare Enforcement & Litigation: European Union overview . 15 November 2022 . Lexology . 18 October 2022.
  2. News: European Medicines Verification Organisation: Medicines Verification System Goes Live Across EU to Better Protect Patients from Falsified Medicines . 15 November 2022 . Businesswire . 8 February 2019.
  3. News: Understanding the Compliance Expectations for the Falsified Medicines Directive . 21 September 2018 . R&D . 20 September 2018.
  4. News: Almost 1,500 pharma firms could miss FMD deadline, warns body in charge . 21 September 2018 . Pharmaceutical Journal . 10 August 2018 . 21 September 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180921230414/https://www.pharmaceutical-journal.com/20205306.article?utm_campaign . dead .