This Bill passed the House 46-21, but did not reach a vote in the Senate.
Libertas Institute supports this bill.
As healthcare costs continue to skyrocket, cheaper alternatives for consumers are needed for many traditional services. Compounding pharmacies are one important example. These pharmacies prepare personalized medications for patients by using a practitioners’ prescription to correctly mix together the necessary ingredients to create the exact strength and dosage form needed by a patient. Compounding individualizes medication to fit the needs of any given patient.
As is typical of the healthcare industry today, these types of pharmacies are over-regulated. Representative Ray Ward has introduced House Bill 189 to change that and offer consumers more choice. HB 189 would allow a compounding pharmacy to prepare any “prescription drug in a dosage form which is regularly and commonly available from a manufacturer in quantities and strengths prescribed by a practitioner.”
In layman’s terms, this would allow a compounding pharmacy to sell generic brand drugs to the public and allow a consumer more access to cheaper medicines that still fit the specificity of their prescription. As advocates of a free market, we support this measure to remove this unnecessary regulation that unfairly protects name brand drugs.
