OMCLs assess human and veterinary medicines to determine whether they meet the relevant requirements for content, purity, etc., as specified in the marketing authorisation dossier or an official pharmacopoeia.
Investigations may also be carried out on products suspected of being falsified, in support of police, customs, health or judicial authorities.
To take into account the cross-border and global dimension of medicines markets, OMCLs co-operate actively at the European level and beyond.
The GEON, which comprises over 70 OMCLs from over 40 different countries, is co-ordinated by the Strasbourg-based European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare (EDQM) of the Council of Europe, an international organisation upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe.
OMCLs play an essential role in the Official Control Authority Batch Release (OCABR)[2] procedure, which is foreseen in EU legislation.