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Kristina von Sydow, General Manager, e-VIS: Reflecting on 5 years of FMD in Sweden. Can we have more confidence in the medicines supply chain now?

The Latvian Medicines Verification System will be updated to release 5.0 on October 16. The installation of the release is scheduled for overnight starting at 21:00, during which temporary interruptions in system operation are possible.

In the third quarter of 2024, a total of 28 million transactions were carried out in the Latvian Medicines Verification System (LZVS). After the final verification, slightly more than 7.4 million medicine packages were supplied to citizens in Latvia.

From 1 January 2025, new rules on the labelling and packaging of medicines will come into effect across the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, under the Windsor Framework. These rules will prohibit prescription medicines in Northern Ireland from being labelled with European Union (EU) safety features. The requirements of the EU Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) for medicines marketed and supplied in Northern Ireland will no longer apply.

LZVO provides guidance on the actions to be taken by the end user when the system displays an NMVS_NC_PC_01 (Unknown product) error notification with the package status "UNKNOWN" during the verification process of a medicine package, but no alert is generated.

Italy and Greece are the two countries that were granted the longest transition period of 6 years for the implementation of the Falsified Medicines Directive. Accordingly, from February 9, 2025, the European Medicines Verification System must also be operational in these countries, where active preparations are currently underway.