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Without prejudice to Article 6, Member States shall take all appropriate action to ensure that only medicinal products in respect of which a marketing authorization has been granted in accordance with Community law are distributed on their territory.
1. Member States shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the wholesale distribution of medicinal products is subject to the possession of an authorization to engage in activity as a wholesaler in medicinal products, stating the place for which it is valid. 2. Where persons authorized or entitled to supply medicinal products to the public may also, under national law, engage in wholesale business, such persons shall be subject to the authorization provided for in paragraph 1. 3. Possession of a manufacturing authorization shall include authorization to distribute by wholesale the medicinal products covered by that authorization. Possession of an authorization to engage in activity as a wholesaler in medicinal products shall not give dispensation from the obligation to possess a manufacturing authorization and to comply with the conditions set out in that respect, even where the manufacturing or import business is secondary. 4. At the request of the Commission or any Member State, Member States shall supply all appropriate information concerning the individual authorizations which they have granted under paragraph 1. 5. Checks on the persons authorized to engage in the activity of wholesaler in medicinal products and the inspection of their premises, shall be carried out under the responsibility of the Member State which granted the authorization. 6. The Member State which granted the authorization referred to in paragraph 1 shall suspend or revoke that authorization if the conditions of authorization cease to be met. It shall forthwith inform the other Member States and the Commission thereof. 7. Should a Member State consider that, in respect of a person holding an authorization granted by another Member State under the terms of paragraph 1, the conditions of authorization are not, or are no longer met, it shall forthwith inform the Commission and the other Member State involved. The latter shall take the measures necessary and shall inform the Commission and the first Member State of the decisions taken and the reasons for those decisions.
Member States shall ensure that the time taken for the procedure for examining the application for the distribution authorization does not exceed 90 days from the day on which the competent authority of the Member State concerned receives the application. The competent authority may, if need be, require the applicant to supply all necessary information concerning the conditions of authorization. Where the authority exercises this option, the period laid down in the first paragraph shall be suspended until the requisite additional data have been supplied.
In order to obtain the distribution authorization, applicants must fulfil the following minimum requirements: (a) they must have suitable and adequate premises, installations and equipment, so as to ensure proper conservation and distribution of the medicinal products; (b) they must have staff, and in particular, a qualified person designated as responsible, meeting the conditions provided for by the legislation of the Member State concerned; (c) they must undertake to fulfil the obligations incumbent on them under the terms of Article 80.
Holders of the distribution authorization must fulfil the following minimum requirements: (a) they must make the premises, installations and equipment referred to in Article 79(a) accessible at all times to the persons responsible for inspecting them; (b) they must obtain their supplies of medicinal products only from persons who are themselves in possession of the distribution authorization or who are exempt from obtaining such authorization under the terms of Article 77(3); (c) they must supply medicinal products only to persons who are themselves in possession of the distribution authorization or who are authorized or entitled to supply medicinal products to the public in the Member State concerned; (d) they must have an emergency plan which ensures effective implementation of any recall from the market ordered by the competent authorities or carried out in cooperation with the manufacturer or marketing authorization holder for the medicinal product concerned; (e) they must keep records either in the form of purchase/sales invoices, or on computer, or in any other form, giving for any transaction in medicinal products received or dispatched at least the following information: - date, - name of the medicinal product, - quantity received or supplied, - name and address of the supplier or consignee, as appropriate; (f) they must keep the records referred to under (e) available to the competent authorities, for inspection purposes, for a period of five years; (g) they must comply with the principles and guidelines of good distribution practice for medicinal products as laid down in Article 84.
With regard to the supply of medicinal products to pharmacists and persons authorized or entitled to supply medicinal products to the public, Member States shall not impose upon the holder of a distribution authorization which has been granted by another Member State, any obligation, in particular public service obligations, more stringent than those they impose on persons whom they have themselves authorized to engage in equivalent activities. The said obligations should, moreover, be justified, in keeping with the Treaty, on grounds of public health protection and be proportionate in relation to the objective of such protection.
For all supplies of medicinal products to a person authorized or entitled to supply medicinal products to the public in the Member State concerned, the authorized wholesaler must enclose a document that makes it possible to ascertain: - the date, - the name and pharmaceutical form of the medicinal product, - the quantity supplied, - the name and address of the supplier and consignor. Member States shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that persons authorized or entitled to supply medicinal products to the public are able to provide information that makes it possible to trace the distribution path of every medicinal product.
The provisions of this Title shall not prevent the application of more stringent requirements laid down by Member States in respect of the wholesale distribution of: - narcotic or psychotropic substances within their territory, - medicinal products derived from blood, - immunological medicinal products, - radiopharmaceuticals.
The Commission shall publish guidelines on good distribution practice. To this end, it shall consult the Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products and the Pharmaceutical Committee established by Council Decision 75/320/EEC(22).
The provisions of this Title shall apply to homeopathic medicinal products, with the exception of those referred to in Article 14(1). TITLE VIII ADVERTISING
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