North Carolina News: Item 2151 - Wholesale Prescription Drug Distributors Laws' Applicability to Pharmacies

October 1, 2007 4:17 pm Topics: Controlled substances, Prescription transfer, and Pedigrees

Reprinted from the October 2007 North Carolina Board of Pharmacy Newsletter.

Board staff is frequently asked whether and under what circumstances a transfer of prescription drugs to another pharmacy could trigger wholesaler obligations. Dan Ragan – the drug administrator for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Food and Drug Protection Division – clarifies. North Carolina Wholesale Prescription Drug Distributors Laws provide (NCGS 106-145.2(10)(e)): “The sale, purchase, or trade of a prescription drug or an offer to sell, purchase or trade a prescription drug for emergency medical reasons. Emergency medical reasons include transfers of prescription drugs by a retail pharmacy to another retail pharmacy to alleviate a temporary shortage when the gross dollar value of the transfer does not exceed 5% of the total prescription drug sales revenue of either the transferor or transferee pharmacy during a 12 consecutive month period.”

Transfers between pharmacies that fall outside these guidelines would require a North Carolina wholesaler license. Note that the simple sale of excess stock to another pharmacy would be a wholesale activity. Pharmacists should also be aware that federal pedigree requirements could bear on transfers. And transfer of controlled substances between pharmacies requires compliance with all pertinent provisions of the federal Controlled Substances Act and associated regulations.