FDAnews
www.fdanews.com/articles/171919-eu-drugmakers-move-closer-to-adopting-counterfeit-repository

EU Drugmakers Move Closer to Adopting Counterfeit Repository

July 1, 2015

A Luxembourg-based nonprofit set up by European pharma groups is one step closer to launching a counterfeit drug repository system, having finalized contracts with three software firms to help implement the system.

Under the arrangement, national medicines verification organizations in each EU member state will create and manage repositories, with the help of the software service providers, the European Medicines Verification Organization, an umbrella group, says. The system will allow for verification of medicines supplied in Europe.

The agreements — reached with Aegate Holdings, Arvato Systems and Solidsoft Reply — are a major step toward securing the legitimate supply chain and preventing falsified drugs from reaching patients, says Andreas Walter, interim head of EMVO.

EMVO was jointly launched in February by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, European Generic medicines Association, European Association of Euro-Pharmaceutical Companies, European Association of Pharmaceutical Full-line Wholesalers and Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union.

It is an outgrowth of the EU’s 2011 Falsified Medicines Directive, which mandates that drugmakers affix antitampering technology to all drug packaging, including a barcode to verify the authenticity of the drug. — Jonathon Shacat