Members of the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) submitted a joint statement to President Donald Trump's administration, asking for an appeal to a recent
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
decision saying a
pharmacist cannot begin to fill a patient’s prescription without a written, valid prescription on hand.
“We ask for your support in encouraging the FDA to cease using un-finalized, non-legally binding guidance documents in their enforcement actions as if they have the weight of law or regulation,” they said in a statement. “We believe the new administration should give consideration to rescinding them and reconsidering the policies contained in light of the new administration’s policy priorities.”
Before the FDA issued this final protocol, pharmacists were allowed to begin filing (compounding) a prescription before the doctor’s official prescription came in, with limited quantities.
The ruling also affects other aspects of pharmaceutical duties, which include having to “outsource facilities (that) can compound and distribute sterile and non-sterile nonpatient-specific drug products to hospitals, clinics and health care practitioners for office use."
Pharmacists appeal FDA's new protocol for filling prescriptions
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