Legislative and regulatory victories for veterinarians gain momentum.

Adding to victories for veterinarians in Florida, Illinois, Georgia, and Mississippi, Minnesota has amended a relevant statute to clarify that veterinarians may order non-patient-specific compounded medications for office administration and dispensing. It becomes effective on July 1, 2019:

“Minnesota Statutes 2018, section 151.253, is amended by adding a subdivision to read:

Emergency veterinary compounding.

A pharmacist working within a pharmacy licensed by the board in the veterinary pharmacy license category may compound and provide a drug product to a veterinarian without first receiving a patient-specific prescription only when:

1. The compounded drug product is needed to treat animals in urgent or emergency situations, meaning where the health of an animal is threatened, or where suffering or death of an animal is likely to result from failure to immediately treat;
2. Timely access to a compounding pharmacy is not available, as determined by the prescribing veterinarian;
3. There is no commercially manufactured drug, approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, that is suitable for treating the animal, or there is a documented shortage of such drug;
4. The compounded drug is to be administered by a veterinarian or a bona fide employee of the veterinarian, or dispensed to a client of a veterinarian in an amount not to exceed what is necessary to treat an animal for a period of ten days;
5. The pharmacy has selected the sterile or nonsterile compounding license category, in addition to the veterinary pharmacy licensing category; and
6. The pharmacy is appropriately registered by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration when providing compounded products that contain controlled substances.”

In the wake of the Drug Quality and Security Act of 2013 (DQSA), a number of state Boards of Pharmacy have tried to harmonize their states’ regulations of the compounded medications used by virtually every practicing veterinarian with this law. The problem with these changes has been that the DQSA recognizes the distinct natures of practicing medicine for human health and for animal health. As a result, the law applies exclusively to the practice of medicine for human health. So, harmonization efforts aimed at veterinary medicine that mirror restrictions placed on compounded medication for human use have sometimes inadvertently restricted or eliminated veterinarians’ access to critical compounds.

Wedgewood Pharmacy is a strong advocate for veterinarians’ access to compounded medications and supports efforts nationally and in various states to create or change legislation and regulation that serves the real needs of veterinarians, their clients, and their patients. State Boards of Veterinary Medicine have been active, too, in working with State Boards of Pharmacy to create a regulatory environment that recognizes how compounded medications are prescribed, administered, and dispensed by veterinarians.