New Oregon law lets pharmacists prescribe formulary drugs, devices.

Abstract

As early as January 1, Oregon pharmacists will be permitted to prescribe and dispense drugs and devices listed on a formulary to be established by the state board of pharmacy under a bill recently signed by Governor Katherine Brown. The formulary, according to the new law, may contain such “post-diagnostic” items as diabetic testing supplies, smoking-cessation aids, epinephrine autoinjectors, albuterol inhalers, rapid strep tests, and spacers for inhalers. Other possibilities mentioned in the law are discharge medications during transitions of care and emergency refills of insulin. “Nothing about this is new territory,” said Michael E. Millard, cochair of the Oregon Society of Health-System Pharmacists (OSHP) 2017–18 Legal and Regulatory Affairs Committee, in explaining why the prescribing bill passed the legislature on the first try. None of the drugs and devices that OSHP and the Oregon State Pharmacy Association described in their jointly prepared literature for legislators has a “diagnostic component,” the Pacific University School of Pharmacy assistant professor said.