One in four UK pharmacies are not yet registered with the UK’s central Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) hub six months after the implementation deadline, The Pharmacist has learned. The directive, which came into force on 9 February, is a pan-European regulation that requires pharmacies to decommission and verify the authenticity of medicines using barcode scanning…
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The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulation Agency (MHRA) has recalled 69 batches of medicines imported from Italy following concerns they were taken out of the regulated supply chain. The eight affected treatments are for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), psoriasis, high cholesterol, Parkinson’s, epilepsy and blood clots. They left the supply chain during distribution and…
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Public Health England (PHE) are still ‘not yet issuing’ vaccination stock that complies with the EU Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD). The directive, which came into force on 9 February, is a pan-European regulation that requires pharmacies to decommission and verify the authenticity of medicines using barcode scanning software before they are dispensed to patients. PHE…
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The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has outlined its top three priorities for the next community pharmacy contract during upcoming negotiations with the Government – including a multi-year contract and more timely payments for certain services. The negotiator hopes to win a contract spanning several years instead of just one when it begins negotiations with…
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Less than half of community pharmacies are registered with the UK’s central Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) hub, The Pharmacist has learned. Just over 6,000 (6,288) of around 14,000 UK pharmacies are fully registered with SecurMed, according to weekly statistics posted on its website on Tuesday (12 February). Another 3,000 pharmacies are in the process of…
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Fears that the UK is heading towards a no-deal Brexit mean pharmacists should continue preparing for the Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) ‘with appropriate caution’, NHS England has warned. The directive, which came into force last Saturday (9 February), is a pan-European regulation that requires pharmacies to decommission and verify the authenticity of medicines using barcode…
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Al Patel, contractor at Lee Pharmacy in south east London, reports on how his staff have been progressing with the introduction of the Falsified Medicines Directive   Overall there’s been little progress from last week. All the equipment is in place, but we can’t seem to sign up. We received our password in the post,…
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Medicines manufacturers have warned that a no-deal Brexit ‘makes no sense’ because the UK would no longer be a part of the Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD). The Europe-wide anti-counterfeiting legislation, due to come into force this weekend (9 February) will see everyone in the supply chain – from manufacturers and retailers, to pharmacies, GPs and…
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Most medicines can still be dispensed even if they return an alert from the Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) database, the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has advised. The FMD is a series of European anti-counterfeiting measures that will see pharmacists scan packs of medication to very their authenticity before they are dispensed. It comes into effect…
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Al Patel, contractor at Lee Pharmacy in south east London, reports on how his staff have been preparing for the introduction of the Falsified Medicines Directive It’s the final week before the FMD deadline and we’ve done everything we can to prepare. Last week there were two main developments. First, the Medicines and Healthcare products…
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