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Does Mass. law allow substitution? New measure requires physicians to include generic names on Rxs for all drugs listed' in special state formulary A bill -which apparently will al- lclw :tlassachusett~.' hharnlacist~, tu dispense whatever drug brands the\ wish, on n1o1st llrescripti(lns, has been signed into , law by (;ov. l=rrtti- cis tiargent, t n(ler the law, a5 memlaer cnnl- ntissi,m will compile and nlaintain a list of all drurs ccminlo~n1\ 11re- scribe(1 in the state for which thera- peuti: equivalence is recognized in bc,th brand nanle and ,;eneric ver- S1c~11~. Required: Nltis;achusett~- cloctor,, wili then be required to include generic nanle_ un all hxs for clrui;,, appearing in the formulary. The\- will be permitted to sJleci7Na brand name as well-but pharmacists pre- sumalll\ wili ha-,e the (rl)tinn tu (li,- 1lense an-,- versiun, of the (Iruc~ that ther have on hand. "Yresunlal,ly", 1>ecause there is snllle (luestiom as to whether the ne«• 1ueasure in fact sanctioms unlimitecl sttbstitntinn. Rel1. l. E(lwarrl tierlin, l>rincillal sllon~,or of the ne.\• law, contends that it does. He sars it overrides ~la~~tlchll~etL• e\15t111~ a11t1-substl- A NEW substance, possibly a hor• mone, has been discovered by Dr. V. M. Buckalew Jr of Emory U, which appears to act on the kidney to cause an increase in salt excretion from the kidneys. Here, he is using a device to deter- mine if the sub- stance inhibits salt transport across a toad bladder. The research is sup- ported by a grant from the, Natiortal Insti'tu'tes"of tntl()Il ,tatute. This view i.,, shareri by Carl Rubert-,. head of the .aluer- can Pharmaceutical Assn's legal clepartment Benchmark: Althuugh ANh.-\ clichl't have anything to do with lla.,sage of the Serlin measure, the organization regards its passage as a significant step in its campaign to relleal anti-stlb5titutiun laws throughout the country. The \] assachttsetts Yharnlaceuti- cal Assn remaina uncertain abuut ex,utl\ how the Serlin bill affects llharnlacists. Assuciatinn secretarv, Lonlis 1'erlrtttt puint., uttt that the llharmacist NN•hu is handed a 1>re- scrilttiK:i11 citing 63th a 1>,rali(1 aitrl generic nanle is faced with a cli- letT finla. Liability: "lf the (luctur goes to the trouble of citing a specific brand. llresunlably that's the drug lie want~, (lispen.se(l. Even if the llharmacist is legally authorized to ~ substitute another product. we think that if lte (lc1es so, lte may be placing him- self in real je(lllar(ly if, for am• reason, the generic item fails to per- f,)r111 in a way that satisfies the pre- scriber. \\'e tliiuk that under sucl, circttmstance~,. the l,harnl<<ci~t' biliv,m-iv be tremenrlnn~.." l~n(ler the Serlin llill, the fornlu- lary ccmmii~-:~irllt l which will 11rol,- al)l% include rnle ptlarnlaci,t menl- ber I will make it~, asse.~sment of theralletttic ecluivalency n1l the of existing material. inchl(linl; ]lita) i(irnlularie:, tl~ecl in :11ri~,,achu- aetts and elsewhere. ln Mr. Yermut', view, thi~, i,~n't 11(mll enough. "The Funrl & ] )ru;g .Mministrati{ln isn't allle to attest to the tTeneric equivalency of all ltlulti111e-sclurce clrttg,. 1•-Ic1w can thi~, c(,mmi~,si<m, which (loesn't have any scieltific re~ ~urc~~, be expected toy (l(1 ,u' And huv- can irt(lividual l,lharltlacists pu„ihly (1o S_` .\lr. Permut said he had at- tempted to have the Serlin bill amencle(1 so a~, to shecifi that fc r- nlulary itent,, must be certified a~, generically ecluivalent 11y the FI)A. This effort wa,~ tutsttcressfui, he said. Education: Rep. '~',erlin told A\iER1C'Aa ]]Rt'(-,(;1RT that Stu lt after his bill is inll>lementeci, he ex- Iora't, l~lt arai~.ar~; tj,atrotti! to ct;a-t a,l.",~ inr phttrm.acist!, to (lisltelase gener- ic., "My bill had the backing of clr- ;1anizecl labor in 1lassachusetts, a~, well as senior citizens and other co~nsnnier gro1n11~,." lie saicl. "I think these urhanizatiuns will go to sc,mr lengths to e(hlcatc their nlenlher~- ahuut the benefit,, of my bill. :\s a result, Nlassachusetts 11}larltl•lcist~, will be compelled to 1 stock a lrn):ul line of generics for cun111etitiNt.1 re•is~ ms. The AYhA believcs th,tt, in a short time, the recluirenlents of th(, tierlin bill will prompt Ma,.achu- setts (lucturs to st~(rt writill', Tcneric llrescrilltioms alrllost exclusively. 'I-h(• Serlin bill exclndes patented (lrug~-, for which, as a rule, i;e•neric ~ N'r,i~ 1n; art•i Ithla;i~ttiiltlullc. pil I 18 • Inferpreiinp Ihe News AMERICAN DRUGGIST • Seplembe• 7. 1G?0

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