(1)

Article 54a(1) of Directive 2001/83/EC provides that medical products subject to prescription are to bear the safety features referred to in Article 54, point (o), of that Directive, unless they have been listed in accordance with the procedure pursuant to Article 54a(2), point (b), of that Directive. That list is to be established considering the risk of and the risk arising from falsification relating to medicinal products or categories of medicinal products applying the criteria set out in Article 54a(2), point (b), of Directive 2001/83/EC.

(2)

Article 47 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/161 (2) provides that where, following a notification as referred to in Article 46 of that Regulation, the Commission or a Member State considers, on the basis of casualties or hospitalisations of citizens of the Union due to exposure to falsified medicinal products, rapid action is required to protect public health, the Commission is to assess the notification without delay and at the latest within 45 days. In order to better fulfil the objective of that Article, the reference to citizens of the Union should be replaced by a reference to people in the Union as all adverse events in the Union should be considered and monitored regardless of citizenship.

(3)

Article 46(2) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/161 establishes that national competent authorities may inform the Commission of medicinal products which they deem not to be at risk of falsification.

(4)

Annex I to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/161, sets out a list of medicinal products or product categories subject to prescription that shall not bear the safety features. The product category ‘cicatrizants with ATC code D03AX’ with pharmaceutical form ‘fly larvae’ is not included in that list.

(5)

On 22 August 2019, the Commission received a notification from the competent German authority stating that it deemed the prescription medicinal product BioBag (ATC code D03AX and pharmaceutical form ‘fly larvae’) not to be at risk of falsification in accordance with the criteria set out in Article 54a(2), point (b), of Directive 2001/83/EC, and that the medicinal product should therefore be exempted from the requirement to bear safety features.

(6)

The Commission assessed the risks of and arising from falsification of the medicinal product concerned taking into account the criteria listed in Article 54a(2), point (b), of Directive 2001/83/EC. In particular, the specific characteristics and short shelf life of the pharmaceutical form fly larvae means that risk of falsification is negligible and, therefore, those criteria can be considered to be met.

(7)

The Commission consulted the expert group ‘Delegated act on safety features for medicinal products for human use’, which noted the extremely short shelf life and the fact that the product contains living organisms (3).

(8)

It is, therefore, appropriate to include the product category ‘cicatrizants with ATC code D03AX’ with pharmaceutical form ‘fly larvae’ in the list of medicinal products or product categories subject to prescription that shall not bear the safety features, set out in Annex I to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/161.

(9)

Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/161 should therefore be amended accordingly,