The question of who pays for providing and upgrading systems for FMD is a key one for all involved in the medicines supply chain.

The Directive itself makes it clear that the costs of establishing the European hub and each National Medicines Verification System is to be borne by “manufacturers” (i.e. companies holding marketing authorisations for branded, generic or parallel traded products).

However, pharmacy owners will have to pay the costs of connecting to the UK hub. This includes any equipment needed, such as new scanners.

Each of the four national community pharmacy negotiators (PSNC, CPS, CPW and CPNI) is working to ensure that contractors’ FMD-related costs are recognised in future NHS funding settlements. The costs involved include initial set-up costs, ongoing software and hardware maintenance costs, plus the ongoing incremental cost of the time which the operation of FMD adds to the current dispensing process.