Pharmacy board turns back on veterinary drugs

Sacramento, Calif.-California veterinarians with PetMed Express complaints should stop contacting officials with the state's pharmacy board. They're not interested.

That's the gist of a letter being mailed to practitioners across thestate. In it, the California State Board of Pharmacy claims that accordingto business and professions code 4022, dangerous drugs don't include thoselabeled as veterinary medicine. "Therefore, the board does not havethe authority to pursue an investigation and/or take any action disciplinaryagainst PetMed Express, Inc.," the letter says. "We recognizethat this may create a situation in which it appears no agency can offeryou the resolution you seek. To that end we apologize."

The action not only counters a precedent set by pharmacy boards fromNew Mexico to Ohio, which have disciplined Florida-based Internet pharmacyPetMed Express for selling drugs without valid DVM prescriptions, it hascritics questioning who will regulate veterinary prescriptions now thatthe pharmacy board has abandoned its role. At presstime, the CaliforniaVeterinary Medical Board (CVMB) was set to meet with the pharmacy boardto resolve the issue. If their efforts fail, veterinary officials likelywill go to the state's legislators demanding change.

"It's the pharmacy board's responsibility to protect the publicfrom veterinary drugs," CVMB Executive Officer Susan Geranen says."Veterinarydrugs are just as dangerous as human drugs; many are the same and they'represcriptions must be regulated.

"It doesn't make sense that you could put a label on drugs thatwould automatically make them over the counter. It's just not possible."

Hands off approach

Whether its possible no longer concerns the pharmacy board, says ExecutiveOfficer Patricia Harris. While the issue recently came to light with Internetpharmacy complaints, the law's stood for years, she says

"We just figured it out in the last six months that we don't havejurisdiction over vet drugs," Harris says. "It's been a very grayarea, but we have legal opinion backing this. It's as simple as that."

The pharmacy board's legal opinion was verbal, Harris says. DVM Newsmagazinedid not view the opinion in writing.

Difference of opinion

By contrast, the CVMB's received legal opinion poking holes in the pharmacyboard's stance. Based on the state attorney general's view, it reads:

"The placing of a label upon the container of a drug reading 'forveterinary use only' does not change or convert such drug into one designedfor the purpose of feeding or treating poultry or animals other than man and does not exempt such a drug from the classification of a dangerousdrug and the requirement that it be dispensed upon the prescription of adoctor of veterinary medicine."

One example is ketamine. While the drug is strictly intended for DVMuse, it's known as a party drug. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency regulatescontrolled substances, Geranen says, but the pharmacy board should overseeprescriptions and dispensing them.

"Cortisone, hormones, antibiotics - they could all potentially besold over the counter," Geranen says. "It probably would be legal,or at least no one would be regulating it."

Blueprint answer to budget cuts?

The reason they're not, she adds, has to do with budget cuts. BeforeInternet pharmacies came about, veterinary medicine was little work forthe pharmacy board. With budget cuts, board members are having a hard timefinding the manpower to deal with DVM complaints, Geranen says.

"We're all under staffing shortages," she says. "But thepharmacy board is down seven positions. Veterinary medicine didn't bug thembefore, and now the workload is getting too much."

That's just a rumor, Harris explains. "This is a specific exemptionwe're talking about, not staffing issues."

Meanwhile, CVMB officials are doing what they can to answer the 44 DVMcomplaints the pharmacy board's directed to them. In doing so, CVMB recentlyissued a citation against PetMed Express for unlicensed activity on behalfof California veterinarians, issuing cease and desist orders in cases ofcomplaints.

"PetMed Express isn't located in this state; we can't drag themhere to pay our fines," she says. "We're trying to take what actionwe can, but the big hammer, like in other states, is the board of pharmacy."