We are delighted to report that our Life Sciences team has been successfully appointed as legal advisers in relation to the establishment and functioning of the UK Medicines Verification Organisation (UKMVO). The UKMVO will be formed by the major UK stakeholders in the medicines distribution chain, namely the ABPI, BAEPD, BGMA, CCA, HDA, and NPA, and will be responsible for the implementation in the UK of the requirements of the Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD). The objective of the FMD is to protect patients from falsified medicines which might make their way into the legal distribution chain. Falsified medicines may contain low quality ingredients or wrong doses, fake packaging or wrong ingredients or have their identity of source deliberately misrepresented. The FMD will implement stricter control, tighten the supply chain and require additional safety features, such as serialisation codes and tamper evidence devices as well as a pan-European system to verify the authenticity of medicinal products at the point of dispensing.
Stevens & Bolton’s role will be to incorporate and establish the UKMVO, work with the UKMVO to help put in place the IT system required for verification and authentication of medicines, as well as other legal arrangements such as the funding necessary to implement the IT system and the agreement with the central European MVO. This is an extremely interesting project and we are happy to be involved and to be able to support the stakeholders in the UK with this important development.
Rick Greville, a Director at the ABPI, said
"We are delighted to be working with Stevens & Bolton on what will be an exciting and challenging project."
Charlotte Tillett