Aegate News

Major European Generic Pharmaceutical Companies join Aegate patient safety communications service

Brussels, Belgium, March 16, 2009: Leading generic pharmaceutical companies in Belgium are utilizing Aegate's unique drug authentication and patient safety communications service, with the announcement today that Teva joins the growing list of other major European generics companies such as Mylan and ratiopharm, to experience the benefits that the real-time service provides.

Aegate is already being used by a large number of branded pharmaceutical organizations. However, in Europe, with close to 50 per cent of all medicines1 dispensed to patients being generics, and with the generics market growing at a rate that is noticeably higher than the overall pharmaceutical market, the growing use of Aegate by Generics companies will have a significant and positive impact on pharmaceutical care.

As an early adopter and sponsor of this service, Patrick Reygaert, Managing Director Mylan Belgium, said "we were convinced about the added value it can deliver in terms of quality information on our products to the pharmacist. We are always concerned about the quality and traceability of our products. Moreover, it is an excellent tool to promote the patient compliance through messages delivered onscreen to the pharmacy staff members.

Ruud Van Anraat, Director Public Affairs Teva Pharmaceuticals Europe B.V., agrees: "Generic companies place a high priority on the importance of the safety of medicines, and are keen to ensure they provide a good service to pharmacists who are ultimately responsible for the quality of medicines they dispense."

Aegate's service works by authenticating medicines in real-time at the point of dispense, a proactive check to confirm products are genuine before being handed to the patient. Aegate also brings efficiencies to the recall process and expiry date management, enabling pharmacists to know instantly if a product is not suitable for dispensing. As the last point of professional contact between the pharmaceutical industry and the patient, providing pharmacists with informed and accurate information about the drug to be dispensed is fundamental not only to patient safety but also to the pharmacy itself.

Roel Geysen, General Manager of generic drug manufacturer Teva in Belgium, was keen to point out the benefits his company will see from using the service: "Patient safety is always a high priority and we are pleased to be able to utilise Aegate's authentication service so that pharmacists dispensing Teva products can do so with added confidence".

With recent findings from the EU consultation proposing the urgent need for a European wide solution, generic companies are joining the growing number of organisations utilizing Aegate's service. Aegate is the only company operating a comprehensive authentication system in Europe today and its service fully meets the proposal as laid out by the European Commission, making it the ideal choice for companies wishing to gain real-world experience from an authentication system.

Guido Hoogewijs, General Manager of the Belgian Pharmacist Association (APB), welcomes the move being taken by generic companies: "Broadening both the type and volume of products protected by the Aegate service in Belgium is something we are keen to see and we fully support".

With close to half the pharmacists in Belgium adopting Aegate's unique authentication service, approximately 6 million items a month are scanned in Belgium and this is increasing rapidly. Aegate's system was independently audited in 2008 by the University of Leuven. The results conclusively proved that the Aegate authentication process is consistently reliable and an effective method to identify authentic, recalled, expired and suspicious drugs at the point of dispense, alerting the pharmacist before they may be inadvertently dispensed to patients.

1 2006 Market Review, The European Generic Pharmaceutical Markets, EGA internal document, June 2006.