UPM Raflatac has developed a range of pharmaceutical labelling products to support compliance with the Falsified Medicines Directive on packaging for prescription drugs and high-risk, over-the-counter medicines. Few solutions offer the same ease of adoption for meeting the February 2019 deadline.
The Falsified Medicines Directive (2011/62/EU) places two demands on pharmaceutical product packaging. Packs should carry a unique serial number to identify and authenticate individual products, and they should be sealed in a tamper-evident way which visibly exposes attempts to open them.
Details on how the authenticity of medicines should be verified and by whom, as well as the characteristics of the safety features, were finalized and published this February under Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/161. This supplements core Directive 2001/83/EC on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use and regarding the prevention of falsified medicinal products entering the legal supply chain.
An estimated 30 billion prescription (white list) or high-risk OTC (black list) drugs are sold and handled annually in Europe. The deadline for pharmaceutical packaging compliance with the Falsified Medicines Directive is 9 February 2019 in the majority of EU member states.
While the delegated regulation (EU) No 2016/161 stipulates that an anti-tampering device has to enable verification of package tampering, there is no elaboration on mandatory specifications. However, the European Commission Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety advises that guidance can be taken from the new CEN standard EN 16679:2014 “Tamper verification features for medicinal product packaging”.
This CEN standard is the route UPM Raflatac pursued in the development of tamper-evident labelling products meeting an urgent market need for solutions compliant to the Falsified Medicines Directive. The result is a range of package sealing materials based on the RP62 EU adhesive. RP62 EU creates visible cardboard tear when attempts are made to remove labels from typical pharmaceutical drug cartons. The labels cannot be smoothed back down.
RP62 EU is available with a range of clear label films, and an RP62 EUL variant enables missing label detection by luminescent detector. The latest addition to the range is Pharmaclear PP Seal, a destructible label face which visibly stretches on removal. This doubles up on the tamper-evident functionality of the adhesive for an even higher level of security, and also prevents misappropriation of the label onto counterfeit products.
As per the Falsified Medicines Directive, drug package serial numbers and integrity are verified at the point of dispensing, where medicines are released to consumers and patients. The serial numbers are checked against the drug manufacturer’s database, and the package integrity by visual inspection.
