EU Ministers and MEPs have struck a deal on new EU legislation to tackle the growing problem of counterfeit drugs. The new rules aim to improve patient safety by introducing safety features which guarantee the identification, authenticity and traceability of medicinal products. This includes the introduction of a tracking system with bar codes on all single packs of medicines.

Additional features include the introduction of tough sanctions for counterfeiters and better regulation of on-line pharmaceutical sales. The legislative text will now be formally approved by the European Council of Ministers and published in the EU’s Official Journal of the. EU governments will then have two years to transpose the new rules into their national legislation.

For further information about the specific role which hospital pharmacists can play in tackling counterfeit drugs, readers may wish to re-visit an article on this subject published in EAHP’s European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy

http://www.eahp.eu/EJHP/EJHP-Practice/Issue-2-2008/Feature/The-role-of-hospital-pharmacists-in-counterfeit-medicines