(19 February - Brussels): Major European healthcare stakeholders have taken a significant step towards securing the legitimate pharmaceutical supply chain against the risk of falsified medicines, as required by the EU Falsified Medicines Directive.

EAEPC, the European Association of Euro-Pharmaceutical Companies, EFPIA, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, EGA, the European Generic and Biosimilar medicines Association, GIRP, the European Association of Pharmaceutical Full-line Wholesalers and PGEU, the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union, have on 13 February 2015, announced the establishment of the European Medicines Verification Organisation (EMVO).

EMVO, a not-for-profit stakeholder organisation incorporated in Luxembourg, represents a key tool to combat the emergence of falsified medicines in the EU legitimate supply chain and improve patient safety. It represents the culmination of four years of intensive work towards a dependable and secure pharmaceutical verification system. Financed in the initial stages by the pharmaceutical industry, EMVO will now assume responsibility for the European Hub, which links national verification systems throughout Europe, a design agreed by the European Stakeholders.

Through the engagement of the whole pharmaceutical supply chain, the EMVO will reinforce the value of the European Stakeholder Model, allowing end to end verification of medicine packs from the point of manufacture, through to wholesale distributors, carrying out risk based verification and pharmacies to the dispensing point for patients, thereby securing the entire supply chain.

Germany will be the first Member State to contribute fully to the improved Europe-wide verification system under the auspices of EMVO, through its securPharm system.  Meanwhile, countries that will need to comply with the Falsified Medicines Directive can benefit from the opportunity to join an existing product verification infrastructure designed by the EMVO (referred to as the national Blueprint System Template).

Newly-appointed EMVO Spokesman John Chave said: “The establishment of the EMVO is a major milestone in the implementation of the Falsified Medicines Directive, and shows stakeholders in the pharmaceutical sector working together to improve the security of the legitimate supply chain and, most importantly,  to promote patient safety."