World Pharmaceutical Frontiers

Huge changes have taken place in the pharmaceutical industry due to globalisation; for example, the supply chain is more complex and there is increasing demand for better security, traceability and control of medicines marketed from the manufacturing site to the patient.

As part of The Council of Europe and the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare (EDQM)'s anticounterfeiting strategy, the eTACT project aims to develop a pan-European, IT-based traceability service for medicines. eTACT is intended to become a publicly governed service for authorities and all stakeholders throughout the supply chain, including patients who will be able to verify the authenticity of their medication using smartphones or the internet.

The EDQM is well placed to act as a trusted third party for the independent running of a service governed by the authorities of the member states adopting it, and it is open to all stakeholders, thereby ensuring data protection.