The EU’s anti-counterfeit legislation, the Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) – which requires all pharmacies to be able to scan barcodes on medicines packaging at the point of dispensing – came into force on February 9.

Lloydspharmacy told C+D that following “some IT issues”, which were affecting FMD systems across all its branches, two pharmacies became compliant this morning (March 21).

It did not explain what the IT issues were, but said that other Lloydspharmacy systems were not affected.

The multiple is “confident the IT issues have been resolved” and will continue with its “robust rollout plan”, it told C+D.

FMD equipment is still being delivered to its branches, and feedback from its pharmacies which have participated in its FMD pilot will inform the multiple’s ongoing plans, it reiterated this morning.

The multiple had previously warned the General Pharmaceutical Council that not all of its pharmacies would be compliant by the February 9 deadline.