Recipharm has released its first serialized products to Europe from its facilities in Lisbon, Portugal and Stockholm, Sweden.

In 2016 Recipharm committed to invest €40 million to prepare its facilities for the European Falsified Medicines Directive (EU FMD). This release is a milestone towards compliance with the new regulation.

Recipharm’s other facilities across Europe will also be ready to release fully serialized products to Europe by the end of the year, ahead of the February 2019 EU FMD deadline. To date, the company has delivered over 2.5 million serialized packs to markets where serialization regulations are in place, including China, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, as well as 500,000 packs to the U.S. The company is implementing the technologies of cloud network provider TraceLink and software and hardware providers SeaVision and Marchesini.

Staffan Widengren, director corporate projects and head of the global steering committee for Recipharm’s serialization program said, “Over recent years Recipharm has become known for leading the way in meeting the serialization challenge. We are proud to have reached this milestone four months before the FMD deadline and anticipate that all our facilities will meet compliance by the end of the year.”

Recipharm is serializing its customers’ products for free until February 2019 to ensure a seamless transition when the regulation comes into effect.