What we do 

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.