Thirteen National Competent Authorities (NCAs) for medicinal products are actively involved in the UNICOM project. They are pioneering the implementation of the identification of medicinal products (IDMP) in the European Medicines Regulatory Network. Their work will include knowledge sharing and best practices to other NCAs of the EU which are not directly active in the UNICOM project.

After a first period of 9 months which allowed participating NCAs to build a common understanding of what needs to be done and how and to share their best practice, the time has now come to inform and engage all EU NCAs . Now that EMA released the version 2 of its implementation guideline, it becomes all more pertinent.

From May 4th onwards, the regular knowledge sharing and best practices meetings will thus be opened to all NCAs (and related bodies). The first event will provide a first introduction to the overall IDMP topic (from a NCA perspective) and focus on the ingredients. This event will take place in the context of the EMA telematics forum with the following agenda and speakers:

IDMP Implementation at NCAs in UNICOM:

· Christer Backman, UNICOM WP4 Lead, Project Manager, Swedish Medical Products Agency – MPA, Sweden

· Pelle Persson, IT Director, Swedish Medical Products Agency – MPA, Sweden

IDMP – Ingredients in Medicinal Products:

· Georg Neuwirther, IT Director, Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety Ltd. – AGES, Austria

· Harald Laimer, Project Manager, Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety Ltd. – AGES, Austria

Two supplementary “Best practice workshops” are already scheduled:

May 10th: 13.00 -15.00 CEST

· IDMP versus Manufactured items

· IDMP versus Pharmaceutical products

June 2nd: 10.00- 12.00 CEST

· IDMP versus Packages

Participation to those workshops is by invitation only. However, if you are currently involved in the work performed by or with a NCA and have not received an invitation, you may send a request to and provide your credentials.

UNICOM is confident that this initiative will provide a substantial contribution to the inclusion of IDMP implementation among the priorities of all EU NCAs