New MHRA Inspectorate Blog GDP Post: Protecting the UK Medicines Supply Chain

Recommendation

13/14 December 2023

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One of the objectives of Good Distribution Practice (GDP) and an important aspect for distributors of medicinal products is preventing falsified medicines entering the legal supply chain. In this context, a new post, entitled "Too good to be true? How to play your part in protecting the UK medicines supply chain", has been published on the MHRA Inspectorate blog. The article dated 26 July 2021 was written by Emanuela Krasteva.

In the post, it is pointed out that "GDP requires companies to implement effective procedures for the qualification and re-qualification of suppliers and customers. Robust qualification checks provide reassurance that medicinal products are being procured from reputable sources and are only supplied to customers who themselves are authorised to be in possession of medicines."

The article summarizes some of MHRA expectations concerning the due diligence that licence holders should consider when wholesaling medicines. This includes:

• Potential risks should be identified and mitigated using robust supplier qualification checks, which take into consideration the suppliers themselves as well as the products on offer.
• Distributors should remain vigilant to any activity that may constitute fraud or attempt to breach the supply chain integrity.
• Any unsolicited offers for products should be treated with extra caution.
• It is essential to conduct due diligence checks to ensure the authenticity of the medicines that are procured.

To read the full article, please see the MHRA Inspectorate blog "Too good to be true? How to play your part in protecting the UK medicines supply chain".