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The UK FMD Working Group for Community Pharmacy has released guidance to help community pharmacists understand and implement the requirements of the EU Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD).
“The Way Forward for FMD in Community Pharmacy” is, the group said, intended to give an overview of current assumptions around how FMD will operate in the UK, and what pharmacy contractors will have to do to comply with the safety features element of the directive.
The group also said it hoped the document would “start conversations” between pharmacies and IT system suppliers.
Raj Patel, a National Pharmacy Association board member, who chairs the group, said: “It’s only a year until the kick-off date for safety features including 2D barcodes and tamper-proof seals on medicine packs.
“Time is short, so we must make whatever preparations we can, on the basis of the facts already available, even if these are frustratingly incomplete.
“The pharmacy sector has major investment decisions in relation to FMD which cannot be postponed for much longer. However, we can now start having conversations with each other and our suppliers, so that we are better prepared.”
The Falsified Medicines Directive comes into force on 9 February 2019.
