Bill that would track drug sales draws attention to Internet sales

A bill to prevent counterfeit, diluted or contaminated drugs from reaching patients raised legislative concerns about Internet sales in testimony before the Nevada Legislature's Senate Commerce and Labor Committee on Thursday.

Most of those testifying said SB37 by Sen. Valerie Wiener, D-Las Vegas, would go a long way toward fixing problems all states are having in tracking drugs as they move from wholesaler to distributor to retailers.

But Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas said he was concerned the law does nothing to stop bad drugs from getting to people through Internet sales.

"We're trying to do something here to make ourselves feel good, but it seems to me they can just go to the Internet," he said.

Schneider said he receives several offers every day from Internet pharmacies that are outside regulation by Nevada's Board of Pharmacy.

"Who knows what's in those (prescriptions)?" he said.

Committee Chairman Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, agreed: "There's probably not a laptop on the planet that doesn't have 10 or 12 of these things on it every morning. How do we deal with that?"

Fred Hillerby, representing the pharmacy board, said he had no good answer.

Townsend asked the pharmacy board, Pat Coward representing the pharmaceutical manufacturers and others to get the committee some information on the subject and consider a public education program to warn people that what they buy from the Internet may not be the quality or type of drug they need.

"That could go a little way in helping the public understand," he said.

Wiener proposed the legislation, saying there have been numerous horror stories across the nation involving diluted, contaminated or counterfeit drugs. She said the legislation is designed to track pharmaceuticals from the manufacturer to the pharmacy issuing the prescription; requires background checks for wholesalers and others handling the drugs along the way; requires bonding and establish penalties including fines for violators.

She said the idea is to give people using medicines "full faith that their prescription drugs are real and uncontaminated."

She said it is similar to legislation already passed in Florida and under study in California.

Hillerby added that, with California looking at such controls, he is concerned some of the "bad actors" might move to Nevada once restrictions take effect.

He said the legislation would apply to the 38 "domestic" pharmaceutical wholesalers licensed in Nevada as well as the 400 out-of-state businesses which ship drugs to Nevada retailers.

The committee referred the legislation to a subcommittee for study. But the only suggested amendment was one to ensure that drug distribution centers operated by chain stores in the state can be licensed for the chain rather than requiring each store get a license.

- Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or at 687-8750.

Senate Bill 37

AN ACT relating to prescription drugs; requiring an applicant for a license to engage in the wholesale distribution of prescription drugs to submit a set of his fingerprints for submission to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a report of the criminal history of the applicant; requiring certain persons employed by or otherwise providing services in connection with the operation of a licensed wholesaler to submit a set of fingerprints for submission to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a report on criminal history; requiring certain licensed wholesalers to file a bond or cash deposit conditioned upon compliance with the laws relating to wholesalers; imposing certain restrictions on the purchase, sale, distribution and transfer of prescription drugs; requiring wholesalers to provide a statement identifying each prior sale of a prescription drug under certain circumstances; providing penalties; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.