Louisiana Board of Pharmacy Addresses the Compounding of Veterinarian Only Drugs for Office Use

Earlier this year, the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy (Louisiana Board) exercised the emergency provision of the Louisiana Administrative Procedure Act (R.S. 49:9.53.B), to amend its rules governing the compounding of drugs by pharmacies and restored the capability for pharmacies to compound drugs intended for the administration by veterinarians without the necessity of a patient-specific prescription.

As previously discussed at length on the Baer Law Blog, after the passage of the Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA) of 2013, many state boards of pharmacy amended their rules regarding to address compounded medications and adopted rules requiring patient-specific prescriptions. However, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in clarifying the DQSA, stated the DQSA only applies to compounding drugs for human use and does not apply to the compounding of drugs for animal use.

The Louisiana Board, after reviewing requests from veterinarians and many other concerned organizations regarding the dire need for emergency use veterinary compounded drugs, recently restored the authority for pharmacies to compound drugs for office use by veterinarians only, and not for human use.

Through its emergency rule, which the Louisiana Board cited its desire to prevent imminent peril to the public health, safety and welfare, the Louisiana Board granted the temporary authority for pharmacies to compound medications for office use by veterinarians. Per the Louisiana Board, the emergency declaration remains in effect until for the maximum time period allowed under the Administrative Procedure Act or until the adoption of the final rule, whichever occurs first.

The new temporary Louisiana Board rules can be found under §2535.