FMD involves the individual serialisation of medicines packs and submission of product data to an authentication system.

Each EU and EEA member state will have its own national authentication system, known as the National Medicines Verification System (NMVS). The individual NMVS will be linked to a central European system called the European Medicines Verification System (EMVS).

Medicine data relating to individual packs of medicines will be submitted to the verification systems by the medicine manufacturer.

This linked network of verification systems enables medicines suppliers, including wholesalers or pharmacies, to confirm the legitimacy of medicine packs prior to supply to the patient by comparing the data held on the medicine pack with the data on the NMVS.

Community pharmacy contractors will need to ensure that their pharmacy is connected to the NMVS. This will require the introduction of additional software and hardware (scanners etc.)