Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD)

FMD stands for Falsified Medicines Directive which is known as fake medicines which resembles as original medicines and it pass themselves as real and authorized medicines. These falsified medicines might contain ingredient including the active ingredients which are of the poor quality and wrong strength either it may be very high or very low. These medicines are not properly evaluated on the basis of quality, efficacy, safety and it would be detrimental to patient’s health. The FMD UK issues the new guidance for early adopters of FMD, the presentations will help in training the pharmacy teams for recognizing the types of packs which will need the scanning for authentication and verification. It does not carry the safety features. Such falsified products pose unacceptable risks to patients. First of all as safety measures, the pharmacies first of all authenticate the prescription medicines before giving it to the patients. The manufacturers of medicines will upload the valid UI codes to European hub which will in turn pass the data to the relevant NMVS (National Medicines Verification System) and the pharmacies which will be able to check the status of each pack during dispensing process.
All the products after authentication will be notified in the system. For the best implementation of FMD for scanning and authentication there are unique identifiers, proper and unique responsibilities of Fmd Wholesalers, pharmacies and manufacturers. Each individual packs of prescribed medicines must carry unique identifier The unique identifier contains the serial number, product code, batch number, national reimbursement number, batch number and the date of expiry etc. The product code includes the name, common name, strength, pack size, pharmaceutical form and the pack type. The serial number has the randomized numeric or alpha numeric sequence up to 20 characters. The national reimbursement number includes the national identifying code if needed by the member state. The batch number contains 20 characters while the expiry date is written in the format of YYMMDD. All these information’s are printed and encoded on every pack and can also be used for some activities in pharmacy like for the stock rotation, accuracy checking, stock re-ordering etc. Each manufacturer generates randomized unique identifiers and printed on relevant packs of medicines. All the unique identifiers for particular batch of product will be uploaded by the manufacturers when product is released for sale. After NMVS verifications, the pharmaceutical wholesalers, hospital pharmacies etc. are authorized to supply medicines on public.