WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE
2024 REGULAR SESSION
Introduced House Bill 5635
By Delegates Griffith, Summers, and Holstein [Introduced February 12, 2024; Referred to the Committee on Health and Human Resources]
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1 A BILL amend and reenact §30-5-21 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to
2 allowing patients or subscribers of medications to direct pharmacists to list the illness or
3 condition for which a prescription is being issued be listed on the label of the prescription.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
ARTICLE 5. PHARMACISTS, PHARMACY TECHNICIANS, PHARMACY INTERNS
AND PHARMACIES.
§30-5-21. Responsibility for quality of drugs dispensed; exception; falsification of labels;
deviation from prescription; listing medical condition on label.
1 (a) All persons, whether licensed pharmacists or not, shall be responsible for the quality of
2 all drugs, chemicals and medicines they may sell or dispense, with the exception of those sold in
3 or dispensed unchanged from the original retail package of the manufacturer, in which event the
4 manufacturer shall be responsible.
5 (b) Except as provided in section twelve-b of this article, the following acts shall be
6 prohibited:
7 (1) The falsification of any label upon the immediate container, box and/or package
8 containing a drug;
9 (2) The substitution or the dispensing of a different drug in lieu of any drug prescribed in a
10 prescription without the approval of the practitioner authorizing the original prescription: Provided,
11 That this may not be construed to interfere with the art of prescription compounding which does
12 not alter the therapeutic properties of the prescription or appropriate generic substitute;
13 (3) The filling or refilling of any prescription for a greater quantity of any drug or drug
14 product than that prescribed in the original prescription without a written or electronic order or an
15 oral order reduced to writing, or the refilling of a prescription without the verbal, written or
16 electronic consent of the practitioner authorizing the original prescription.
17 (c) Prescribers issuing a new prescription shall ask the patient or authorized guardian if
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18 they wish to have the intended use for the medication or the medical condition included in the
19 directions of the patient's prescription bottle label.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to allow patients or subscribers of mediations to direct pharmacists to list the illness or condition for which a prescription is being issued be listed on the label of the prescription.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.
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Statutes affected:
Engrossed Committee Substitute: 60A-3-308