Act No. 13, 2003
MEDICINES AND RELATED SUBSTANCES
CONTROL ACT, 2003
(33) Notwithstanding the other provisions of this section
(a)
a medical practitioner, a dentist, or a veterinarian, may sell an emergency
medicine in the course of lawfully carrying on his or her professional
activities to, or for, a patient under his or her care or treatment;
(b)
a person employed by a manufacturer of, or wholesale dealer in,
pharmaceutical products, and authorised to do so by that manufacturer or
wholesale dealer, may exhibit a Schedule 1 or a Schedule 2 substance to a
medical practitioner, a dentist, a pharmacist or a veterinarian on prescribed
conditions;
(c)
a para-veterinary professional employed by a veterinarian, which veterinarian
holds a licence issued under section 31(3), may sell a Schedule 1 or a
Schedule 2 substance for the treatment of an animal, on a written prescription
or on an oral instruction issued by that veterinarian;
(d)
a person who may sell a medicine for the purpose of consumption under
this section may sell that medicine at cost to any other person, who may
lawfully sell the same medicine for the purpose of consumption; and
(e)
the Minister may exempt a person or class of persons from the application
of this section by notice in the Gazette and on such conditions as the Minister
considers necessary, if in the opinion of the Minister, the exemption is
necessary for medicinal purposes and is not in conflict with the provisions
of international treaties.
Generic substitution
30.
(1)
A pharmacist
(a)
must inform all members of the public, who visit his or her pharmacy with
a prescription, of the benefits of substituting the requested medicine with
an interchangeable multi-source medicine; and
(b) subject to subsections (2) and (3), may dispense an interchangeable multisource medicine instead of the medicine on the prescription.
(2) If a pharmacist dispenses an interchangeable multi-source medicine, he or
she must note the brand name, or the name of the manufacturer, of that interchangeable
multi-source medicine in the prescription book, or other permanent record, required to
be kept in the prescribed manner.
(3)
A pharmacist may not dispense an interchangeable multi-source medicine
(a)
if the person who issued the prescription referred to in subsection (1) has
written on that prescription in his or her own hand the words “no substitution”
next to the item prescribed;
(b)
if the patient expressly objects to a substitution;
(c)
if the retail price of the interchangeable multi-source medicine is higher
than that of the medicine specified on the prescription; or
(d)
if the product has been declared not substitutable by the Council in terms of
subsection (5).