Travel with prescribed treatment: which documents should you check before crossing?

For your regular treatment, keep a prescription with you naming the substances by their international nonproprietary names, or INNs. These names help identify the substances beyond brand names. If you live in France and travel with controlled medicines, ANSM requires the original prescription and, where possible, an English translation.

If your treatment requires injection pens, syringes or needles, ask for the medical certificate explaining why you need to use them. French Health Insurance recommends keeping it with you, in French and, where possible depending on the destination, in English. Prepare this document with your doctor before departure.

Have it checked whether your medicine is controlled in the country you will visit, particularly if it is classed as a narcotic or subject to equivalent controls. Each country may require a certificate, restrict transport or prohibit certain medicines from entering. Before departure, ask the country’s embassy or health ministry about its current rules.

For the transport of the controlled medicines concerned to a Schengen-area country, ANSM’s page says to contact the regional health agency, or ARS, for the region where the prescribing doctor is registered to obtain a certificate. Clarify the contact using your prescription and destination: the procedure depends on this framework.

Outside the Schengen area, if the destination requires a transport certificate issued by the authority of your country of residence, ANSM is the competent French authority in the procedure described. Its page requires an application at least ten days before departure, using an online form with a scanned French secure prescription, or ordonnance sécurisée. Check these arrangements before travelling.

For a longer stay, also prepare continuity of treatment with your doctor. Under the procedure described by ANSM, the certificate covers a treatment period limited by the maximum permitted prescription duration. For longer travel, the agency advises arranging the necessary steps to continue treatment in the destination country.