North Carolina News: Item 2095 - Prescription Order Expiration Date

January 1, 2006 12:36 PM Topics: Controlled substances, Federal regulations, and Emergency contraception

Reprinted from the January 2006 North Carolina Board of Pharmacy Newsletter.

The question has arrived in the Board office as to the existence of an “expiration date” for prescription orders. The only Regulation that would apply to this situation is the one for prescriptions in Schedules III and IV. Federal Regulation 21 CFR Part 1306.22 provides that no prescription for a controlled substance (CS) listed in Schedules III or IV shall be filled or refilled more than six months after the date on which it was issued.

For Schedule II drugs and other prescriptions for non-controlled substances, there is no limit from the date of the prescription’s issue and the date of its filling. Therefore, it is possible for a practitioner to issue a prescription for emergency contraception, and this document would still be legal indefinitely. There is, of course, always a judgment factor in the decision by the pharmacist to dispense any prescription