Temporary Disruption Hits Securpharm Pharmaceutical Verification System Across Europe
This morning, pharmacies across several European countries experienced a temporary outage that affected the Securpharm pharmaceutical verification system. The disruption rendered the authentication and decommissioning of prescription medicine packages temporarily impossible, impacting daily operations in pharmacies that rely on the system to prevent the distribution of counterfeit drugs.
The issue was traced to the central manufacturer database system, known as ACS-PU, which stores the unique identification data of prescription medications. Operated by the service provider Arvato, this database is integral to the Securpharm framework--a system that has been mandatory in Germany since 2019 as part of the implementation of the EU Falsified Medicines Directive (Directive 2011/62/EU) and the Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/161. Through these measures, the European Union aims to secure medicine supply chains and protect patients from counterfeit pharmaceuticals.
The outage began early this morning, reportedly around 8:30 AM, and extended to 13 out of 14 European countries that utilize Arvato's platform for Securpharm operations. During this period, pharmacy inventory management software displayed error messages, and routine electronic checks for each medicine package could not be performed. As a result, pharmacies were unable to verify or decommission packages before dispensing, a key step in ensuring that only authentic products reach patients.
Despite the disruption, most pharmacy IT systems were able to buffer or temporarily store transaction data. This allowed pharmacies to continue processing some of their workload, with the expectation that once the system was restored, pending verification tasks could be completed. Coordination between the German National Agency for Digital Medicine (NGDA) and the database operator was ongoing throughout the incident to address the issue and inform stakeholders of the evolving situation.
By midday, around 12:00 PM, the Securpharm system was reported to be back online. The NGDA issued updates on its website regarding the resolved disruption and outlined any residual limitations that pharmacies might encounter as systems returned to normal operation.
Securpharm is a cornerstone in the fight against medicine counterfeiting in the European Union. Under this system, pharmaceutical manufacturers are required to equip each medicine package with a unique data matrix code and tamper-evident seal. Pharmacies are responsible for electronically verifying these security features prior to dispensing medications to patients. The process ensures that each package's serial number is only used once, and any attempt to manipulate or duplicate the code is detected immediately.
Such regulatory safeguards have proven essential in maintaining the security and integrity of the pharmaceutical supply chain. In countries like the Netherlands, for example, the proportion of scanned prescription medicine packages has steadily risen, with 95% of packages being electronically verified in 2025, up from 79% in 2023. These efforts, coordinated by national pharmacy associations and regulatory authorities, demonstrate the critical importance of reliable digital verification systems in healthcare.
While the recent outage was resolved within a few hours and did not result in any reported compromise of patient safety, it highlights the dependence of modern pharmacy operations on uninterrupted digital infrastructure. The ability of pharmacy software to buffer transactions and the swift response from both national agencies and service providers played a significant role in minimizing the impact on medicine supply and patient care.
Regulatory bodies continue to monitor system resilience and encourage ongoing technological improvements to prevent similar incidents in the future. Ensuring the reliability of verification systems like Securpharm is vital for upholding public trust in the safety of the medicine supply chain across Europe.