Spain had been using the cutter in pharmacies for half a century. Until you decided to digitize it

Entering the pharmacy in 2026 and that the method to mark the traceability of the medicine was to cut a small tape with a cutter did not seem like the most technological method in a European country. Finally, it is something that will change forever.

what has happened. The Council of Ministers yesterday approved the modification of Royal Decree 1345/2007which updates the regulation of the Spanish Medicines Verification System.

Until now, upon arriving at the pharmacy the pharmacist would peel off or cut the seal from the box, paste it on a sheet of paper and this documentation would demonstrate to the administration that a prescription medication had been dispensed and that it would be reimbursed. This is about to end.

The new. The Minister of Health, Mónica García, has celebrated the modernization of the new identification system. This relies on the national drug repositoryin operation since 2019 and which allows each medication to be identified using a unique code.

“We’re talking about the sealed coupon. That’s what pharmacists did when you came to the pharmacy to pick up a drug and they had to cut out a piece of cardboard and paste it on a sheet of paper. Well, we’re going to eliminate all of that.” Monica Garcia.

The difficulty of the process is that it is not enough to make the first identification: it is necessary to justify that this container cannot be re-introduced onto the market. To solve this problem, as advanced by the pilot test that was carried out in the Valencian Communitythe medication will be linked to the prescription, the buyer’s data and registered in the system. Nothing prevents the medication from circulating again through unofficial channels, but it is impossible for it to go through official channels again as new.

• Now each box will have a unique identity.
• The batch, expiration date and route of the medication are known.
• If a problem appears with a batch, you can know: which patients received it, in which pharmacy, how many containers were dispensed.

not so fast. Palace things are going slowlyand more in Spain. The full transition has not been marked, and what we know to date is that the new system will coexist with the old.

Once the integration of the systems in all the autonomous communities is completed, the traditional sealed coupon will disappear forever, in favor of a 100% digitalized model.

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