DRUG SAMPLES SHOULD BE DISCONTINUED, NABP DECLARES IN RESOLUTION

Executive Summary

DRUG SAMPLES SHOULD BE DISCONTINUED, NABP DECLARES IN RESOLUTION forwarded to the pharmaceutical industry. The resolution resulted from discussion of diversion-related issues by the Georgia Drugs & Narcotics Agency at the recent annual meeting of the Natl. Assn. of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP). NABP "has been aware of the growing trend in which many drug whslrs. deal in diverted drugs, as well as the number of new drug whslrs. springingup strictly for the purpose of brokering samples and diverted drugs," NABP President-Elect Eugene Argo said in a statement. Argo is a member of the Georgia Pharmacy Board. NABP-urges its member boards "to look closely" at the FBI's Georgia-based investigation of drug diversion, "When a licentiate in their state is convicted of such crimes or otherwise proven to have committed such violations, we urge that state board of pharmacy to take strong, swift and just action," Argo said. The Georgia Pharmacy Board said it plans to introduce legislation in the General Assembly in 1986 banning the sampling of all Rx drugs in Georgia. One of the Georgia board's members is Neil Pruitt, past-president of the Natl. Assn. of Retail Druggists, which has proposed for some time the ban of Rx drug samples. "As a result of this [FBI] investigation and the findings regarding the methods by which drug samples are being misused, it is obvious that it is impossible to insure that the integrity of drug samples have been maintained and have not become adulterated," the Georgia board said.