Finnish pharmaceutical manufacturers have begun trialling new medicine packaging in preparation for new EU-wide measures to try and stop the circulation of fake medicines. Pharmacies will also see themselves faced with new procedures once the rules come into force.
Fake medicines can often be ineffective or dangerous. As a result the fight against the influx of counterfeit prescription drugs has been EU-wide, with new, safer packaging as the secret weapon.
EU rules demand that, in future, each box will carry a unique identifier code and anti-tamper elements. At the Turku factory of Finnish pharmaceutical company Beyer, test packs which meet the new standards have been rolling off the production line.
"They'll be glued or sealed shut so they're impossible to open without the customer noticing," says production chief Sari Dahlqvist.
Meanwhile Beyer's Finnish competitor Orion said they have got some packaging lines ready and are working to bring others into line with the new system. Factories across the sector have already had to adapt their standards to new Chinese and Korean quality control demands, so the firms say they're not fazed by the changes.
New packets will not stop fake drugs being available to buy online, but the idea is to prevent them ending up in official European supply chains. Two years ago cancer drugs were recalled from the Finnish market over counterfeiting fears.
Pharmacists will also have new duties under the new rules, to enter each medicine's code into the system for every patient. Finland began distributing new code readers to its pharmacies some months ago, with the aim of being ready for when the new practices come into force in two and a half years' time.
