Aegate’s Ten Core Principles

Aegate’s business approach and the core principles underpinning the Aegate authentication service are described here:

  1. Aegate’s core principle is Patient Safety. The authentication service has been designed, developed and implemented to provide confidence to the pharmacist and other supply chain actors. Specifically it is about the ability to verify the authenticity of the medicines being dispensed to patients.

  2. Fundamental to the authentication service is the ability to check the medicine at the last point in the supply chain when the dispensing professional hands the medicine to the patient. This also ensures that at this time a final check on both expiry date and recall status can be made. In addition given the check is made at the point the medicine is handed to the patient it facilitates the opportunity to give the patient other important patient safety information about the drug.

  3. Underpinning the Aegate service is the security of the data, the security of the operation and the security of the points of interface with the service. The Aegate database is hosted in a known physical location where levels of security and access can be checked. ISO policies and procedures ensure operational security is maintained and this is complemented with audits and external intrusion tests.

  4. Aegate works on the principle that the creator of the data is the owner of that data. Aegate hold all data securely and access to the data is severely limited though its ISO policies and procedures. Aegate is a service provider and does not sell data. However, if stakeholders agree that they want to explore new services in the future then Aegate can help with this.

  5. Aegate is a Service Provider, the Company is totally focussed on the delivery and execution of medicines authentication services.

  6. Aegate monitor and measure service levels to ensure the authentication service meets agreed key performance indicators.

  7. Aegate has developed its service to be able to measure the total round trip time of an authentication transaction from the point the medicine is scanned by a pharmacist to the point that a response is displayed. This has been achieved through the integration of the Aegate service directly into the existing pharmacy dispensing software.

    The other benefit of this software integration approach is that the authentication service fits into the users existing workflow. Thus ensuring that there is no disruption to pharmacy operation or the need to perform a secondary scan.

  8. Aegate have had over seven years’ experience running a fully operational service in multiple European markets. During this time the service and software have been continually developed to enhance performance and reduce operational costs. Aegate has identified that having a full end to end service offering is far more cost effective than one which relies on third parties developing their own interface or messaging software.

  9. Aegate operates on the principle that the authentication service is free to pharmacy. Aegate’s view is the Manufacturing Authorisation Holders (MAH) are obliged to pay for the service as detailed in the Falsified Medicines Directive. This includes in Aegate’s definition the interface to pharmacy and the operation of the service at pharmacy. The cost of an end to end system, like the Aegate model, is also lower for the manufacturer’s national repository which does not have to run expensive services to allow multiple pharmacies’ third parties vendors to connect with it, requiring support and technical Application Programming Interfaces or Web Services to be maintained. Consequently Aegate do not charge pharmacies or pharmacy associations for the authentication service, recognising indeed that the pharmacy will have to scan the medicine and potentially invest in new 2D barcode scanners. If, however, pharmacies want to use the network for other services then these will not be provided free of charge.

  10. Aegate supports the principle of stakeholder governance and the important roles that national stakeholders, governments and regulators play in ensuring the service is performing to its contractual commitment.

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