California grants long delay in e-pedigree requirements

SACRAMENTO, Calif. —A stroke of the pen by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has given pharmacy operators in the state until 2017 to adopt the expensive track-and-trace technologies needed to establish electronic pedigrees for the drugs they dispense.

Schwarzenegger handed California pharmacies a major victory Sept. 30, signing into law a bill that gives the state’s drug retailers an additional six years to comply with electronic pedigree and track-and-trace technology requirements for prescription drugs. The bill, known as S.B. 1307, revised the technology requirements for establishing the origin and movement of prescription drugs through the supply chain. In a key victory for retailers, it includes a provision that pushes back the deadline for compliance from Jan. 1, 2011, to Jan. 1, 2017.

Bruce Roberts, executive vice president and chief executive officer of the National Community Pharmacists Association, echoed other pharmacy leaders when he hailed the signing of the new law. “Gov. Schwarzenegger signed into law…a common-sense bill delaying the implementation of e-pedigree, which gives California’s approximately 2,200 independent community pharmacies, who are at the end of the distribution process, a new deadline that is one year later than for manufacturers and distributors.

“Everyone supports the goal of using the still-developing track-and-trace technology designed to limit the fraud and abuse of prescription drugs, but the previous deadline of 2011 was a logistical and financial nightmare for all of the affected parties,” Roberts added. “We believe the delay allows those concerns to be addressed.”

Schwarzenegger’s support for the bill reflects the recommendations of pharmacy leaders for a gradual and more workable implementation process for new e-pedigree requirements. Dave Wilcox, owner of Northwest Medical Pharmacy in Fresno, Calif., brought those concerns to the Enforcement Committee of the California State Board of Pharmacy in December, testifying that more time was needed because the technologies are largely dictated to them by choices made by manufacturers and distributors.