A medicinal product pack is labelled with a product code and a randomised unique serial number (serialisation), which, together with its batch number and expiry date, is encoded in a two-dimensional barcode. Based on this procedure, the pack is uniquely identifiable throughout Europe.
Before a medicine is handed out by a pharmacy, a hospital pharmacy or a dispensing physician, the serial number of the medicinal product is verified (verification) against a data repository and after successful verification the medicinal product is decommissioned. 

This is to ensure the authenticity of the medicinal product. Should any inconsistencies appear during the verification process the medicine must not be handed out.

In order to record the unique identifiers each EU as well as EEA member state and Switzerland established a national repository. The national repository implemented in Austria is connected to an European Hub to ensure the verification of individual medicinal product packs also throughout Europe. This hub is operated by the European Medicines Verification Organisation (EMVO).