9 February 2025 will mark the sixth year of the Medicines Verification System across Europe and in Latvia. Its main aim is to ensure that patients receive only safe medicines, eliminating the possibility of counterfeit medicines entering the legal supply chain.
During these years, the number of checked and decommissioned medicines packages in the Latvian Medicines Verification System (Latvijas zāļu verifikācijas sistēma – LZVS) has increased by 37% compared to the first year of operation, the proportion of alerts has significantly decreased, and the LZVS end user registration system has been fully sorted.
Number of verified packages
In Latvia, the verification system continues to strengthen, and the number of verified and decommissioned medicine packages is increasing each year. This positive trend reflects both the expansion of the user base and the increased reliability and efficiency of the system. It is also important to underline that the increase is in line with market developments and the increasing medicine consumption, which reflects the overall growth of the sector. These results show that the system is not only improving but is also becoming an essential element in ensuring the safety of medicines.
In 2024, a total of 116.4 million transactions were carried out in the Latvian medicines verification system, of which 30.3 million were the decommissioning of medicine packages in Latvia when they were dispensed to the public. This represents a 5% increase compared to 2023.
Alerts
In 2024, the proportion of alerts affecting end users in Latvia remained unchanged compared to the previous year and was only 0.01% on average. This is significantly lower than in the early days of the system, when alerts accounted for around 0.2% of the total number of transactions.
Both in the early days of the system’s operation and now, the majority of alerts relate to technical or procedural errors. The alerts show that the system is working effectively and are also very useful as they indicate both data loading errors on the manufacturers' side and end-user errors at dispensing medications.
The proportion of alerts in Latvia is well below the target set by the European Medicines Verification Organisation (0.05%). This is a very high performance indicator, as a number of countries in the system still have a significantly higher proportion of alerts.
System end users
At the end of 2024, the total number of LZVS end users was 1180, comprising 817 pharmacies, 58 wholesalers and 305 medical institutions.
Upon its launch in 2019, the system had already attracted 1043 end users – pharmacies and healthcare institutions – in Latvia. In the first months of operation, the number of users gradually increased. Currently, 100% of end users in Latvia have joined the verification system, as required by the legislation.
The number of end users of the system constantly experiences some minor fluctuation, as only legitimate users are allowed access. For example, medical practices whose authorisation to purchase medicinal products has expired are denied access.
