IMVO
is a not-for-profit organisation that has been established by a range of
stakeholders across the medicines supply chain in Ireland (pharmaceutical
manufacturers, parallel distributors, wholesalers and community
pharmacists) to set up and manage the Irish medicines verification system.
The establishment of
IMVO is mandated by EU law. Specifically, the Falsified Medicines
Directive (Directive 2011/62/EU) introduced a requirement for all medicine packs to carry a
special barcode containing unique identifiers. These will enable the pack to be
verified and authenticated as it passes through the medicines supply chain and
before it is dispensed to a patient. Details of the unique identifiers from
each pack will be stored in a national database (‘repository’). Pharmaceutical manufacturers and marketing
authorisation holders are obliged to set up and fund a not-for-profit legal
entity to manage each national repository. IMVO is the relevant organisation in
Ireland. It was incorporated as a company limited by guarantee in April 2017.
