Many people and institutions, including healthcare professionals, are entitled to use, administer or supply medicines to the public as part of their normal daily work. Where use of medicines does not constitute a core part of the persons’ role and may be infrequent or unpredictable it is considered that having a connection to the NMVS to enable them to decommission medicines would be impractical and disproportionately expensive.  These persons are collectively referred to as being an “Article 23” group.

Pharmacy contractors supplying medicines to groups covered by Article 23 should ensure medicines are decommissioned prior to supply.

Examples of groups included in Article 23 are:

• Veterinarians and retailers of veterinary medicines
• Dental practitioners
• Optometrists and opticians
• Paramedics and emergency medical practitioners
• Armed forces, police and government institutions maintaining stocks of medicinal products for the purposes of civil protection and disaster control
• Universities and other higher education establishments using medicinal products for the purposes of research and education, with the exceptions of healthcare institutions
• Hospices
• Nursing homes
• Schools
• Prisons

This list is not exhaustive and can be amended by each EU member state.