Tag Archives: FMD

What Happens To The FMD In the UK After Brexit Day? Seriously, Does Anyone Know?

Friday was “Brexit Day” in the United Kingdom—the last day the UK was a full member of the European Union.  At 11pm London time, the UK entered an 11 month “transition period” that will lead to the full exit on December 31, 2020.  On Wednesday the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to accept the UK withdrawal agreement, but a lot more negotiations are necessary before a true “deal” is made.

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EMVO Calls For Enforcement Of FMD/DR

Wait.  I thought the Falsified Medicines Directive and its companion Delegated Regulation (FMD/DR)—which has been in effect since February 9, 2019—was a mandate that would be enforced.  Turns out, it was apparently just a suggestion.  No actual government enforcement.  In fact, according to new estimates by the European Medicines Verification Organization (EMVO) and the National Medicines Verification Organizations (NMVOs),  only 60% of drug manufacturers and 75% of “other” supply chain actors (pharmacies, hospitals, wholesalers, dispensing doctors etc.) have connected to the medicines verification systems (the “system of repositories” mandated in the FMD/DR).  A partial result is that one out of every 33 verification attempts at pharmacies and hospitals who are connected result in a ‘false alert’.  That is, an alert that the drug being verified is not in the repository or the scan is not being interpreted correctly. 

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An Aggregation ‘Discussion’

Trade item, logistics unit…or both?

Aggregation of saleable drug packages to shipping cases and pallets is not required by the US Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) or the EU Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) or the related Delegated Regulation (EUDR).  But certain business processes in the EU under the FMD will be difficult to accomplish without it, and after November 2023, the operation of the supply chain in the US will not be efficient without it (see “Aggregation: The Achilles’ Heel of Pharma Supply Chain Operation Under A Serialization Regulation”, “EU FMD: Aggregation Is Not Mandated, But It Will Be Necessary” and “Pharma Aggregation: How Companies Are Achieving Perfection Today”).  Absent a mandate, companies need to recognize, themselves, just how vital aggregation is to their businesses and prepare to generate it and/or make use of it.

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DSCSA: Interoperable Data Exchange In 2023

Lots of people have been talking lately about what interoperable data exchange in the US pharma supply chain will look like after the Enhance Drug Distribution Security (EDDS) phase of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) takes effect in November 2023 (see “Does Interoperability Change In 2023?”, “5 Myths About The DSCSA In 2023” and “Interoperability And The DSCSA”). 

Increasingly, I’ve heard the opinion expressed that there will surely be multiple approaches adopted for exchanging data, and so it will be necessary for all of those approaches to be made interoperable with each other.  Proponents of this idea claim it is unrealistic to expect a single approach to be accepted by all companies in the supply chain and therefore, having to deal with multiple approaches is inevitable.  This kind of talk makes me nervous.  Here’s why.

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FMD: Denmark Moves To Solve FMD Dilemma

Beginning in less than two weeks, all packages of prescription drugs entering the EU pharma supply chain must contain a 2D barcode encoding the EU serialized ‘Unique Identifier’ (see “The ‘Unique Identifier’ in the EU Delegated Act”).  More importantly, all drugs that have an FMD unique identifier on them at the point of dispense after February 9, 2019 must be “verified” and decommissioned through the National Medicines Verification System (NMVS) (see “What’s So Hard About Unique Identifier Verification?” and “Decommissioning Under the FMD/EUDR”).  It looks like my prediction of FMD delays was wrong (see “How Will They Delay The FMD?”) but at least Denmark has just moved to solve a serious FMD dilemma with a kind of delay.  Let me explain.

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EMVO Admits, ‘Insufficient Randomisation’ Warnings Can Be Ignored

The EU Delegated Regulation (EUDR) of the Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) mandates that all serial numbers placed on non-exempt drugs entering the EU supply chain after February 9, 2019 must be ‘sufficiently randomised’.  What is sufficient randomisation?  The regulation says one thing, and the European Medicines Verification Organization (EMVO), the operator of the EU Hub, says something beyond that.  What should drug manufacturers do?  The EMVO recently updated their messaging.  Let’s take another look at this important topic. Continue reading EMVO Admits, ‘Insufficient Randomisation’ Warnings Can Be Ignored