Germany next market for authentication specialist Aegate?

Germany could be the next country in Europe to roll out Aegate's authentication system for medicines if a preliminary pilot implementation proves successful.

Aegate's 'end to end' authentication service scans a unique code on medicines at the point of dispensing to check whether they are genuine, within their shelf life and not recalled, and is already in operation in Belgium, Greece and Italy.

The UK-based company has now formed a collaboration with the Federal Union of German Associations of Pharmacists (ABDA), with the support of the German Pharmaceutical Association (BPI), in order to test the system in 'numerous' pharmacies throughout Germany over a seven-month period.

15 pharmaceutical manufacturers and wholesalers have said they will participate in the programme, said Aegate in a statement. A spokesman for the company said the actual number of pharmacies that will take part remains undecided.

The ABDA and BPI had a number of criteria that had to be met before the programme could take place, namely that the system could work alongside Germany's current reimbursement framework, make use of 2D datamatrix serialisation coding and be easily deployed by pharmacists.

The ABDA said in a statement that the pilot would involve the placing of a datamatrix code on the product packaging by the manufacturer or wholesaler which would include a serial number, pharmaceutical product code (PZN), batch number and expiration date.

In addition to confirming that medicines are in date, not recalled or potentially counterfeit, Aegate's system can also provide the latest drug safety information to pharmacists whilst dispensing.

Implementation of the system in Germany, which is Europe's largest pharmaceutical market, is a real coup for Aegate and arguably takes it another step closer to becoming the de facto standard for point-of-dispensing medicine authentication in the EU.


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