The year has barely begun, but legislators in several states have already introduced anti-compounding bills pushed for by Eli Lilly or Novo Nordisk. These bills would at best duplicate existing federal law and requirements, but add an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy and paperwork — in most cases without doing a thing to protect patients. Their goal is to limit compounding and patient access to compounded medications.
This is where APC’s Compounding Defense Initiative comes in. Funded by your investments, it includes lobbyists, a dedicated communications team, and an all-out effort to fight the drugmaker-supported bills aimed at crippling pharmacy compounding. Please consider investing in the Compounding Defense Fund now, while it’s still early in these legislative sessions and we can nip as many of these bills in the bud as possible.
Let’s start with the good news. The chair of Virginia’s House Health and Human Services Committee decided not to consider the anti-compounding bill that had been introduced there. (HB 917 would “[Establish] additional requirements for when pharmacists may use bulk drug substances in compounding…” )
Did the op-ed written by pharmacist Cheri Garvin help derail it? It certainly didn’t hurt. The big takeaway is that yes, we can win against these bills because we’re prepared, organized, and have the tools (and the incredible membership) to get the word out and put the pressure on.
We covered the Hoosier state a couple of times here; SB 282 in the state’s senate would have added a significant burden to compounding pharmacists, even though it was (at least officially) supposed to be about regulating med spas and other ‘pop-up’ businesses to protect patients.
Thanks to a concerted effort, including more than 1,300 messages sent via our advocacy campaign from patients and prescribers to Indiana legislators, the version of SB 282 that passed out of the Senate yesterday gives the Indiana Board of Pharmacy much-needed oversight over med spas. Language that affected compounding was effectively removed (except for the requirements that compounding pharmacies comply with federal law and regulation, which they’re already doing). A huge thank-you to everyone who sent messages or pressed their patients and prescribers to respond. Yes, it made a difference!
All that said, this isn’t the end. The Indiana House of Representatives has to approve the bill, and it might end up amended (again, for better or for worse) or even … killed.
The pharma-pushed bill in Washington state, HB 2613, is scheduled for a public hearing in the House Committee on Health Care & Wellness today, Friday, January 30, at 8:00 am Pacific Time. You should be able to watch the hearing by clicking here when the meeting is set to start. (Note that it’s possible the meeting time will change, and also note that the committee will be discussing several bills.)
Like recently introduced bills in Mississippi (Senate Bill 2544), the Washington bill is particularly troublesome because it doesn’t carve out exemptions for either hospital or animal-drug compounding, and it would add some API-inspection requirements that are out of pharmacists’ control. That could leave hospitals and veterinarians unable to get the drugs they need in the dosage forms and strengths appropriate for their patients — human or animal.
There are two problematic bills in the Florida legislature. In the House, HB877 would regulate APIs used in compounded drugs “by requiring that only APIs meeting defined quality standards [...] may be used in compounding.” But wait, we hear you say, isn’t that already the law? The federal law? Why yes, yes it is. That’s why the Florida bill won’t make anyone any safer, but still “imposes recordkeeping, inspection authority, fines, and potential license revocation for violations.” In other words, useless bureaucracy.
In the senate, SB860 would impose additional documentation requirements for any “person or entity” who wants to dispense compounded weight-loss drugs. Why just GLP-1s? Because they’re easy targets thanks to unregulated med spas and pop-up clinics, and pharma companies hope to use bills like this as a foot in the door to regulate compounding out of existence.
If you’re in Florida or work with prescribers or patients who are, please ask them to take 30 seconds (yes, that’s it) to send a message to Florida House committee members: OPPOSE HB 877. We’ve got a super easy online mini-portal to do that: Just click here.
A bill was also just introduced in Colorado — Senate Bill 26-066 — that imposes extensive restrictions, labeling mandates, advertising limits, and record-keeping requirements on the sale and distribution of compounded weight-loss medications. Just like all the bills listed above, it claims to be about “safety” but doesn’t actually do anything to make patients safer. You can bet we’re already working to defeat the bill and make sure we fight the real issues like the counterfeit meds and bad actors who hurt patients and providers alike.