Portugal Relies on Arvato Systems as Its Serialization Partner for the Pharmaceutical Industry

• Arvato Systems implements IT solution for verifying medication in Portugal
• 8 international pharmaceutical companies based in Portugal have also implemented Arvato CSDB for serializing medication packaging

Another EU member state, Portugal, has turned to Arvato Systems for implementing its National Verification System. MVO Portugal signed a corresponding contract with Arvato Systems in response to the EU’s Directive 2011/62/EU to protect against counterfeit medications. In doing so, Portugal has followed the lead of EU countries such as Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, and Finland, who also rely on the Gütersloh, Germany-based IT specialist as an implementation partner.

According to the EU’s Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD), prescription medicines may only be sold in Europe from 9 February 2019 if every individual package is fitted with an individual serial number, and if it can be verified as being unopened. The objective of the directive is to protect patients from counterfeit medication in the legal supply chain. Arvato CSDB takes on tasks such as generating these serial numbers and reporting important production data to the corresponding National Verification System.

Arvato Systems serialization experts will implement the entire rollout of the National Verification System on-site in Portugal, as was the case in Spain – this will entail everything from project management, to account management, through to technical support following successful implementation.

In the future, pharmaceutical companies will record packaging information in the database before the respective product goes on sale. Pharmacists will scan each medication pack in the pharmacy before giving it to customers. The Data Matrix codes and the individual distinguishing features that these contain will immediately verify the authenticity of a given product. Pharmacists may not hand a medical product over to the customer until its status is determined to be correct. The status of the individual serial number will change in the pharmaceutical company database immediately when it’s entered – at which point it is considered used, and cannot be issued again. Separate databases for pharmacists and manufacturers ensure the greatest possible data security for patients.

Your sales contact person for National Verification Systems:

Arvato Systems
Michael Horstmann
Tel.: (+49-5241) 808-8239
michael.horstmann@bertelsmann.de

Your sales contact person for Arvato CSDB:

Arvato Systems
Carl-Rainer Stetter
(+49-5241) 807-5475
arvatocsdb@bertelsmann.de