How to check whether a product has a marketing authorisation

For the Greek market, the check is done in EOF's "medicine search" service, by name, active substance, authorisation number or ATC code ^[2][3]. For centrally authorised medicines, the EMA database and the European Commission's Union Register give the full picture, including withdrawals and refusals ^[4][5]. For an online seller, the check runs through the common EU logo, and for the pack in your hand, through the authenticity-tape check ^[2][10]. If a product is presented as a medicine and appears nowhere, it is not lawfully on the market ^[1].

This article is procedural. What a marketing authorisation certifies, and why therapeutic peptides end up prescription-only, is analysed in other texts on this site; here we describe only how the check is done and how to read the result. The final section explains why the same question is the wrong question when it is asked of research material.

What a marketing authorisation is

Article 6 of Directive 2001/83/EC provides that no medicinal product may be placed on the market of a Member State without a marketing authorisation from that State's competent authority or, for centrally authorised products, from the European Commission ^[1][6]. The authorisation does not concern a substance in general. It concerns one specific product: name, strength, pharmaceutical form, route of administration, indications and authorisation holder. It is, in other words, a narrow permission for one specific product, not a verdict on a molecule.

That also determines what you look for in the register. You are not asking "is this substance approved?" but "is there an authorisation for this product, in this form, for this route?". The second question has an answer; the first usually does not.

The EOF register and how to search it

EOF gathers its public databases on its "Electronic services" page. There you will find the search for human medicines, the equivalent for veterinary medicines, the Yellow Card for adverse reactions and the authenticity-tape check ^[2]. The medicine search accepts a code, a name, an authorisation number, an active substance, an ATC classification and a route of administration ^[3].

1. Open EOF's "Electronic services" and select "medicine search" ^[2].
2. If the pack or leaflet shows an authorisation number, start with that; it is the most specific search key ^[3].
3. Otherwise, search by the trade name exactly as printed and, if nothing comes up, by the active substance — trade names differ from country to country ^[3].
4. In the results, check the procedure type (national, decentralised, mutual recognition, centralised) and the status of the authorisation ^[3].
5. Compare form, strength and route with the product in front of you. An authorisation for tablets does not cover an injectable version of the same substance ^[1].
6. Keep a dated screenshot in your file; the databases are updated and the result can change.

One limitation worth knowing: EOF's search describes its scope as products with at least one priced package ^[3]. A medicine can hold an authorisation but never have been launched or priced in Greece, in which case it will not appear. If a product is missing, the next step is the Union Register or a question to EOF itself — not a conclusion ^[5].

Central authorisation by the EMA and how it shows up

Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 sets out which medicines must go through the centralised procedure: the EMA assesses and the European Commission issues a single authorisation valid in every Member State ^[6]. The EMA's medicines database shows only these products and says so explicitly, pointing to the national registers for anything authorised through national procedures ^[4].

The Commission's Union Register is the most complete source for centrally authorised medicines. It records name, EU registration number, authorisation holder, active substance, ATC code and indication, and — unlike most databases — it keeps products that were suspended, withdrawn or refused ^[5]. A product a seller describes as "approved in the EU" but which is missing from both databases holds no Union authorisation. In EOF's search, the same products appear with the procedure type "centralised" ^[3].

Checking the seller and the pack

Directive 2011/62/EU on falsified medicines added rules on distance selling to the code: only persons authorised to do so may sell medicines to the public online, and lawful sellers display a common EU logo ^[9]. Its design was set by Implementing Regulation (EU) No 699/2014; the logo is a link that leads to the register of online sellers in the country whose flag it shows ^[7][10]. In Greece, Article 4 of Law 4316/2014 regulates the operation of online pharmacy shops ^[8]. A logo that does not lead to the national register, or no logo at all, is the first signal.

For the physical pack, EOF offers a service to check the validity of the authenticity tape on medicines marketed in Greece ^[2]. In parallel, the same Directive introduced safety features on the outer packaging — a unique identifier and an anti-tampering device — so that the authenticity of each pack can be verified at the point of supply ^[9]. Both checks concern the pack, not the authorisation; they complement the register search, they do not replace it.

What a missing listing means

If a product is presented as a medicine — with an indication, a route of administration or a therapeutic claim — and appears neither in the EOF register nor in the EU databases, the answer is simple: it is not lawfully supplied on the Greek market ^[1]. That was exactly the case of the intravenous "therapies" EOF warned about in July 2026.

Beware of a common confusion. A food supplement will not be found in the medicine search, and that is not an omission: supplements are notified to EOF, not approved ^[2]. The phrase "approved by EOF" on a supplement is therefore inaccurate. And a product missing from the database because it has not been priced is not automatically unlawful — which is why an absence is checked in a second source before it becomes a conclusion ^[3][5].

What a listing does not prove

• It does not prove that the pack you hold is genuine; falsified medicines copy the names of authorised products exactly ^[9].
• It does not prove that the seller is entitled to sell it; that is checked separately, through the national register of online sellers ^[7][10].
• It does not cover a form, strength or route other than those the authorisation specifies ^[1].
• It does not mean that the active substance, as a raw material or in other packaging, "is approved"; the authorisation belongs to the product, not the molecule ^[1].
• It does not confirm what a seller claims about uses outside the authorised indications.

When the question makes no sense for research material

Material supplied for laboratory research has no marketing authorisation and should not have one. It is not a medicine, it is not presented for administration, and pharmaceutical law does not concern it as long as its presentation remains a laboratory one ^[1]. No medicines register will list it, and its absence from them is not a finding. For such material the useful questions are documentary: batch identity and purity on the certificate of analysis, the safety data sheet, CLP labelling, the receiving record.

The question also works in reverse. A research-material supplier that claims "EOF approval" or an "EMA authorisation" for its product is claiming something that cannot be true — and that claim, together with any reference to administration, is exactly what does not belong in the description of such material. Anyone who looks at what a research-material supplier is allowed to say will find that the correct answer to "is it authorised?" is "no, and it does not claim to be".