How can pharmaceutical companies verify professional credentials in digital service workflows?

Pharmaceutical companies can verify professional credentials in digital service workflows by using attestations issued under the eIDAS 2.0 framework, presented through the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI Wallet) or other certified identity means. A healthcare professional presents their credential digitally, and the receiving system runs three verification checks to confirm its validity. The sections below walk through the most common questions organizations in pharma ask when they start building this into their processes.

What types of professional credentials do pharmaceutical workflows need to verify?

Pharmaceutical workflows typically need to verify credentials that confirm a person’s professional status, licensing, and authorization to access regulated products or services. The most common examples are medical licenses, pharmacy registrations, prescriber identifiers, and proof of professional affiliation. For cross-border interactions, the underlying recognition of professional qualifications runs through Directive 2005/36/EC, which governs mutual recognition across EU Member States.

In practice, the credentials that come up most often in pharma digital workflows include:

• Medical practitioner licenses and prescriber identifiers
• Pharmacist registration and dispensing authorizations
• Hospital or institution affiliation attestations
• Controlled substance handling authorizations
• Continuing professional development records
• Research and clinical trial participation credentials

Each of these serves a different purpose in the workflow. A prescriber identifier is needed before a digital prescription system accepts an order. A pharmacist registration is checked before dispensing access is granted. An institution affiliation may be required before a medical representative can access a restricted product portal. The common thread is that the credential needs to be current, issued by a recognized authority, and verifiable at the moment of the transaction.

How does manual credential verification slow down pharmaceutical service delivery?

Manual credential verification slows pharmaceutical service delivery because it introduces delays at every touchpoint where a professional’s status needs to be confirmed. When a system relies on paper documents, email attachments, or phone calls to a licensing body, each step adds time, creates room for error, and requires staff to repeat work that has already been done elsewhere.

The practical consequences show up in several places. Onboarding a new healthcare professional to a digital prescribing platform can take days if the process involves manual document collection and back-office review. Cross-border situations are slower still, because licensing registers in different Member States are not always accessible in a standardized way. A pharmaceutical company running a pan-European medical information portal may find that its verification team handles the same professional’s credentials multiple times across different markets.

There is also a compliance dimension. Manual processes are harder to audit. If a regulator asks for evidence that only authorized professionals accessed a restricted service, a paper trail assembled from emails and scanned documents is far less reliable than a structured digital record. The risk of accepting an expired or revoked credential is also higher when checks are done by hand, because the person reviewing the document may not have access to a live register.

What are verifiable credentials and how do they apply to pharma?

Under the eIDAS 2.0 framework, the relevant term is attestation of attributes, not “verifiable credential” as a standalone concept. An attestation is a digitally signed statement issued by an authorized party that confirms specific attributes about a person, such as their professional license or registration status. The regulation distinguishes three categories: Qualified Electronic Attestations of Attributes (QEAA), issued by Qualified Trust Service Providers; PuB-EAA, issued by or on behalf of a public body responsible for an authentic source, carrying the same legal weight as the paper equivalent; and non-qualified EAA, issued by other parties.

For pharmaceutical workflows, the most relevant category is PuB-EAA. A national medical council or pharmacy registration authority that issues a digital attestation of a professional’s license falls into this category. That attestation carries the same legal standing as the paper license it represents. A pharmaceutical company accepting it in a digital workflow does not need to request the paper document as a backup.

When a professional presents an attestation through the EUDI Wallet, the receiving system performs three checks:

1. Issuer signature verification: The system checks the issuer’s signature against the trusted list of the relevant Member State. This check can be done offline.
2. Revocation status check: The system queries the revocation information published by the issuer to confirm the attestation has not been withdrawn. This requires a live connection to the issuer’s status service. Skipping this step means accepting credentials that may have been revoked after a disciplinary action or license expiry.
3. Wallet unit attestation check: The system confirms that the wallet presenting the credential is a certified wallet solution, not a spoofed or non-compliant application.

All three checks together constitute a complete verification. The first alone is not sufficient for a regulated pharmaceutical context where license revocation is a real and consequential event.

How can the EUDI Wallet support credential verification in pharmaceutical workflows?

The EUDI Wallet supports credential verification in pharmaceutical workflows by giving healthcare professionals a secure, standardized way to carry and present their professional attestations digitally. A pharmacist, physician, or clinical researcher can store their license attestation in their wallet and present it to a pharmaceutical company’s digital service in seconds, without submitting paper copies or waiting for a back-office check.

The wallet operates at the high assurance level, which is the level existing verification methods rarely reach on their own. That matters in pharma because access to restricted product information, controlled substance systems, or clinical data platforms typically requires a high degree of confidence in the professional’s identity and status.

Selective disclosure is a practical advantage here. A professional presenting credentials to a pharmaceutical portal does not need to share their full identity record. They can present only the attributes the service has registered to request, such as their license number and professional category, without exposing their home address or date of birth. The wallet enforces this at the technical level: it checks the requesting party’s registered attribute scope and stops the presentation if the request exceeds what was registered.

For pharmaceutical companies operating across multiple EU markets, the wallet also addresses the cross-border problem. A certified wallet issued in one Member State is accepted by a relying party in another, because the trust framework is shared across the EU. The recognition of the underlying professional qualification still runs through Directive 2005/36/EC, but the mechanism for presenting and verifying the credential is standardized.

It is worth noting that wallet use is voluntary. No professional can be required to use a wallet, and Article 5a of eIDAS 2.0 prohibits disadvantaging those who do not. Pharmaceutical companies building digital workflows need to maintain alternative verification paths alongside wallet-based flows.

What compliance requirements apply to digital credential verification in pharma?

Pharmaceutical companies that accept digital attestations through the EUDI Wallet must register as relying parties under CIR (EU) 2025/848 of 6 May 2025 before they can request wallet data. Registration takes place with a national authority in the Member State where the company is established. Without registration, the wallet will not release any attributes to the requesting service.

Registration has a binding consequence that is easy to underestimate. At registration, a relying party specifies exactly which attributes and attestations it will request, per intended use. The wallet checks every incoming request against that registered scope. If a service requests more than it registered for, the wallet stops the presentation. Requesting attributes outside the registered scope is an explicit ground for revocation of the registration. This means the attribute scope decision made at registration is not a formality: it defines the outer boundary of what the service can receive.

Beyond eIDAS 2.0, pharmaceutical companies handling professional credentials need to consider:

• GDPR, Articles 6 and 9: Professional data may include health-related attributes. A legal basis under Article 9(2) is required for processing special category data. The user’s approval in the wallet is not the same as consent under Article 6(1)(a) GDPR, and the company needs its own lawful basis for processing.
• Sector-specific rules: Access to controlled substance systems and prescription platforms is governed by national pharmaceutical law and EU directives that sit alongside eIDAS 2.0. The wallet provides the verification mechanism; sector rules determine what that verification unlocks.
• Logging obligations: Relying parties should log that they stayed within their registered attribute scope, not the full set of attributes presented. Recording more than necessary undermines the selective disclosure the wallet provides at the front end.

The private sector acceptance obligation under Article 5f of eIDAS 2.0 applies to regulated sectors where strong user authentication is legally or contractually required. Healthcare and pharmaceutical services fall within that scope. The deadline for private relying parties is 24 December 2027.

Where should pharmaceutical companies start with digital credential verification?

Pharmaceutical companies should start by identifying the workflows where professional credential verification is already required and where delays or errors create the most friction. Prescriber verification for digital ordering systems, pharmacist authentication for dispensing platforms, and HCP access to restricted medical information portals are the most common starting points.

From there, the practical sequence looks like this:

1. Map the credentials you need to verify and identify which issuing authorities are responsible for each. Determine whether those authorities issue PuB-EAA or non-qualified attestations, as this affects the legal weight of what you receive.
2. Define your attribute scope for each use case before registration. The scope you register under CIR (EU) 2025/848 is binding, so this decision deserves careful review across legal, compliance, and technical teams.
3. Register as a relying party with the national authority in your Member State of establishment. Access certificates issued after registration are what wallets check before releasing any data.
4. Implement the three verification checks for every credential presentation: issuer signature against the relevant Member State’s trusted list, revocation status from the issuer’s status service, and wallet unit attestation to confirm the presenting wallet is certified.
5. Keep alternative verification paths available for professionals who do not use a wallet, as wallet use remains voluntary under Article 5a.

The 24 December 2027 deadline for private sector acceptance gives organizations time to build and test, but registration, technical integration, and internal process changes all take longer than they appear on paper. Starting the scoping and registration process in 2026 leaves room to iterate before the obligation applies.

How the ID Connector supports pharmaceutical credential verification

The ID Connector is an integration that lets relying parties accept every certified European wallet, whatever Member State issued it, for identification, login and qualified signing. EUDI Wallet acceptance comes first; the same interface also carries other IDs, such as national eIDs, bank IDs and identity documents, inside and outside the EU.

For pharmaceutical credential verification specifically, the ID Connector handles the technical layer that sits between a digital service and the wallet ecosystem. That includes:

• Signature validation of attestations against the trusted lists of the relevant Member States
• Revocation status checks against issuer-published status information, so expired or withdrawn professional licenses are not accepted
• Wallet unit attestation validation, confirming that the presenting wallet runs on a certified wallet solution
• Enforcement of the registered attribute scope, so the service only receives what it is authorized to request
• Reuse of verified identity data across interactions, so a professional who has already been verified does not repeat the full process at every touchpoint

Financial services, healthcare, pharma, and government organizations use the ID Connector to bring verified identity into the business processes that depend on it. Contact TrustTech to connect your pharmaceutical workflows to the EUDI Wallet ecosystem through one integration.