08.02.2019

The following national approach to the initial operation of the medicines verification system in Iceland has been announced today.

The Icelandic Medicines Agency has been working closely with the ICEMVO to monitor progress in the implementation of the new safety feature requirements across all sectors. Notwithstanding the significant work undertaken to date and given the complexities associated with setting up the medicines verification system impacting all stakeholders in the medicines supply chain across Europe, it is anticipated that the initial period of operation will identify issues as the new system comes into effect Europe-wide.

Following discussions at a national and European level with stakeholder representatives, it has been decided to adopt a pragmatic approach to the implementation of the Delegated Regulation (and the associated statutory instrument) after the go live date, to ensure the continuity of safe supply of medicines to patients while all parties gain a better understanding of the new system. This means that:

1. All medicinal products released by MAHs for the Icelandic Market after Feb 9^th should bear the safety features as required i.e. a tamper proof seal and 2D barcode
2. During the initial period of operational stabilisation, the system will be considered to be in ‘use and learn’ phase. Therefore wholesalers, pharmacies and hospitals should scan medicines bearing the safety features and if an alert or any other unexpected message is flagged, should continue to supply packs to patients in accordance with their existing procedures, unless they have overriding concerns that a falsified medicine is involved.
3. All alerts generated by FMD system in pharmacies, wholesalers and hospitals, upon scanning a pack during this ‘use and learn’ phase will be forwarded by the system to the ICEMVO, the IMA and the pharmaceutical companies so that they can be investigated and monitored.
4. Notwithstanding the above, if a pharmacist or wholesaler has reason to believe that packaging has been interfered with, based on their examination of the anti-tampering device on the pack, they must report their concern to the IMA (as a suspected quality defect via the usual reporting mechanisms) and not supply the pack.

During this period, the alerts generated will be analysed by the IMA and ICEMVO to determine why they are occurring and develop appropriate protocols for their resolution. Manufacturers (and marketing authorisation holders (MAHs)) will also be involved in the investigation of alerts generated against their products. The stabilisation period will be from February 9^th to September 30^th. This approach will ensure that medicines continue to be provided to patients without delay and also ensure that all stakeholders, manufacturers, wholesalers, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals work to build confidence in operating the new safety system.

Formal notification of this agreed national approach has been issued today to pharmacists, wholesalers, MAHs and manufacturers by the IMA (only in Icelandic). ICEMVO is very appreciative of the careful consideration given to the matter by the authorities in Iceland and we will continue to work closely with them over the coming months to maximise the learnings about the system during this ‘use and learn’ period.

ICEMVO activities regarding alerts

All communications with ICEMVO about alerts should be emailed to alerts@lyfjaaudkenni.is. MAHs registered with us are asked to nominate a contact point for ICEMVO to liaise with when we have queries about alerts relating to their products.

New EMVO system to provide information on status of EU Hub and national system.

The European Medicines Verification System Information (EVI) has been launched by EMVO to provide information on downtimes and known issues with the EU Hub and all the national systems (including the Icelandic system). You can consult the EVI and subscribe for updates by clicking here.

Contacts in ICEMVO 

14.05.18

We are delighted to announce that on May 14th, the Icelandic Medicines Verification System (ICEMVS) was connected to the European Hub live production environment.

Achieving this important milestone was made possible with successful collaboration with colleagues from other NMVO’s working with Solidsoft Reply, especially ZAPAZ in Slovenia, with strong support from the EMVO team and finally ICEMVO Board members, who have actively engaged in this project during the last two years.

Commencing in the coming weeks, we are starting the next phase of our project with participants who are ready to onboard to the EU Hub and with controlled connection of end-users to the national system. This will provide enough time to all participants in the pharmaceutical supply chain to onboard, test, train and prepare themselves in time.

We would encourage manufacturers and OBP´s to start uploading product and pack data to the EU Hub destined for the Icelandic market, including multimarket packs with Denmark and Sweden – ICEMVO is now connected.

Finally, thank you to the many MAH´s who have already completed ICEMVO´s MAH onboarding procedure. If you have not yet registered, details of how to do this are available at http://lyfjaaudkenni.is/en/ma-holders/ .

For further information about ICEMVO, please visit our website http://lyfjaaudkenni.is/en/icemvo/ or get in touch with us by email (info@lyfjaaudkenni.is) at any time.

EMVO is making all On-Boarding Partners (OBP) aware that the end of June 2018 should be considered as the very last opportunity to On-board timely.

An On-boarding Partner is EMVO’s designation of a Marketing Authorisation Holder (MAH) who uploads serialized data.

EMVO would like to make all On-boarding Partners and future On-boarding Partners aware that the end of June 2018 should be considered as the very last opportunity to On-board timely. Any late on-boarding after that date may entail a risk to the company’s business.

The OBP has to take into account that information and expertise from various departments of its company are needed to complete the contractual and technical on-boarding on time. EMVO’s pledge is to ensure an effective level of service towards all OBPs and to allow sufficient time for a successful on-boarding. On the other hand, the OBP should be aware that the on-boarding process may take some time, beyond the control of EMVO

There are more than 2,000 OBPs in Europe, and EMVO is concerned that that many OBPs will initiate their connection to the EU Hub late. There are still too many OBPs who are not connected to the EU Hub, and that is why EMVO makes them aware that EMVO can’t guarantee those who initiate on-boarding after June 2018 that they will be on-boarded in time to upload serialized data before February 9th 2019.

Read the letter from EMVO:

Letter of Announcement – Last Opportunity for a Timely On-boarding

More information on boarding from EMVO:

On-Boarding-Presentation

24/01/2018

We are delighted to inform that the User Acceptance Test (UAT) of the Solidsoft Reply national blueprint system took place on schedule in Slovenia this week, led by Slovenian NMVO (ZAPAZ), and that the system has passed the UAT. This is a key milestone in the development of the national verification systems.

Full end-to-end testing of the system took place using pack data uploaded by J&J and Krka to the EU Hub and with the 2D data matrix codes scanned using Slovenian pharmacy and wholesaler IT systems. The testing took place in the EU Hub and Solidsoft Reply national blueprint system quality environments which are identical to the relevant live production environments.

Event was witnessed by representatives from all involved NMVOs, EMVO and Slovenian stakeholders.

Thanks to involved NMVO community for perfect collaboration and Solidsoft Reply for the professional approach! NMVO´s that participated in this event include Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Lithuania, Czech, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Croatia.

November 30th, 2017

ICEMVO held its first seminar on the introduction of the Icelandic medicine verification system on Wednesday 29 November. The seminar was very well attended, with a total of 80 participants, from pharmaceutical manufacturers and their representatives in Iceland, pharmacies, wholesalers, hospitals, the Icelandic Medicines Agency and local information technology companies.
The agenda of the seminar can be found here and all presentations of the seminar here.

November 29th, 2017

From signing the contract with Solidsoft. Bessi Jóhannesson, Hjörleifur Þórarinsson, Þórdís Ólafsdóttir, Mark Usher and Guðmundur Óskarsson.

ICEMVO has signed a contract with Solidsoft Reply to set up and manage the Icelandic Medicine Verification System. Iceland has also joined a co-operation forum of other countries that have concluded a deal with Solidsoft, including Sweden, Denmark and Ireland, which will be useful in this project.
The contract was signed on behalf of ICEMVO by company Board Members representing shareholders, Guðmundur Óskarsson from Alvogen / Alvotech, Þórdís Ólafsdóttir from Actavis, Bessi Jóhannesson from Icepharma and Gunnur Helgadóttir from Vistor.
A workshop for local IT- suppliers that service pharmacies, wholesalers and healthcare organizations, has been scheduled on December 11th.