As the EU Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) legislation deadline draws closer, Solidsoft Reply has revealed that the first seven countries to go live with the National Medicines Verification System have chosen its National Blueprint systems.
Counterfeiting
Slovenia, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, Lithuania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic have all chosen the Blueprint from Solidsoft Reply to connect to the European Hub. The system itself is built on the Microsoft Azure Public Cloud platform and Solidsoft Reply is looking to roll out a further five systems for Croatia, Iceland, Cyprus, Malta and Switzerland (with Liechtenstein).
Counterfeit drugs are a global problem. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that up to one in 10 medicines could be fake in poorer countries, leading to a $30 billion a year health problem.
The EU FMD legislation, which comes into force from February next year (2019), sets out that each EU country will be required to check every drug pack that enters the supply chain to ensure that fake prescription medicines do not hit the shelves.As part of the directive, all EU countries must have a National Medicines Verification System (NMVS) connected to the European Medicines Verification Organisation’s (EMVO) central hub.
So that all countries can benefit, Solidsoft Reply has built an application programme interface (API) that is vendor agnostic and compatible with legacy systems. Over the coming year, the company has announced that it will also be running a series of IT Supplier workshops to allow pharmacies, wholesalers and IT suppliers to access the NMVS in their country.
Solidsoft Reply is only one of two certified companies in Europe qualified to provide the FMD National Blueprint System