Proposed bill would protect pharmacists who recommend off-label meds

Rep. Chip Brown, R-Mobile, has pre-filed a bill that would protect pharmacists from being disciplined for recommending off-label medications to individuals.

Alabama lawmakers passed a similar bill last year protecting doctors who prescribed off-label medications from being disciplined by the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners or the Medical Licensure Commission of Alabama.

Brown told APR that his bill is seeking to shore up protections at the pharmacy end of that process to ensure patients can get the of-label treatments they were prescribed by their doctors.

“I personally remember during Covid having conversations with larger pharmacies; corporate pharmacies that told me they could not prescribe certain medications off-patent because they could possibly be fired from corporate headquarters,” Brown said. “That’s not right; they’re not able to do their jobs if that’s the case, if that’s what’s been recommended to a patient by that doctor. If a pharmacist wants to follow through, he needs to have that protection to do his job.”

The bill, HB79, would prohibit the Board of Pharmacy from suspending, revoking, or refusing to renew the license of a pharmacist who either recommends the off-label use of a drug or fills a prescription for the off-label use of a drug.

It would also prohibit pharmacies from terminating or disciplining a pharmacist who recommends or fills an off-label prescription, and creates a course of civil action for such a termination.

Pharmacy benefits managers are also barred from taking adverse action against a pharmacist who fills an off-label prescription.

These kinds of legislation became popular in the aftermath of Covid-19, when doctors were prescribing off-label medications such as ivermectin, a horse dewormer, as treatment for the unprecedented virus.

The FDA maintains that clinical trial data does not support ivermectin being effective against Covid-19. 

Another drug that has been on the rise in off-label use is Ozempic, the diabetes drug that has been hailed as a miracle weight loss drug. 

Brown said pharmacists will continue to have the right, as they do under current law, to not fill a prescription if they don’t think it’s safe.

“This bill just provides protection if they do follow through with a doctor’s prescription,” Brown said.

The legislative session begins in just three weeks.