Pharmacy Law: Desk Reference

Citation

Hannabuss, S. (2007), "Pharmacy Law: Desk Reference", Library Review, Vol. 56 No. 6, pp. 517-518. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530710760463

This is very much a book for practitioners in a US context and for people who want to read about the practical legal issues they need to take on board. Beyond that, it is a work likely to interest international readers, above anyone with a serious interest in pharmacy and pharmaceutical law. It is one of several from this publisher on pharmacy – a dictionary, history, education, and prospects for the future of the profession.

The practitioner emphasis is clear all the way through. There is advice on contracts and liability insurance, intellectual property (particularly patents and trademarks), and crimes of tort, where contributors (US pharmacy and legal practitioners and academics, some jointly qualified) provide as much a background and framework of the legal topic itself as advice on its implications for and application in the factual field of pharmacy. Another aspect of the book which confirms that it is aimed mainly at US practitioners is how it sets out to update readers (or at least remind them) about recent developments in practice (like classification of controlled substances, consumer privacy and electronic insurance claims, and electronic and “tele” pharmacy, where issues of authentic electronic signatures apply here (as they do across ecommerce)).

It is, however, not setting out to be cutting‐edge: it is, after all, a desk reference work and calls itself that. By that token, then, it is the sort of book that can be used to check issues that may not be in the front of your memory. The index helps here. Typically, under regulation and practice issues, there are useful summaries of anti‐trust or anti‐competitive practice (under the Sherman Act 2002 and other law) in the USA, and how these things apply to and in pharmacy law. Some relevant cases are cited and more might be made of case law, especially international, above all if ever a new edition is contemplated. Chapters on patents and trademarks, liability insurance and taxation, certifying agencies in US pharmacy, and trade regulation (bodies like the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Federal Trade Commission) provide background that anyone in the field “ought” to know. If we say “ought already” to know, then what is there, at times at least, starts to look more suited to young practitioners, newcomers, and even students of pharmacy law (perhaps coming to as legal people).

Some of the time the material is not fully pushed in the direction of pharmacy and the practitioner, as in a chapter on administrative law that devotes half its length to reproducing California codes (some interpretation and follow‐through much needed here), and another on electronic signatures (which remains too generic), At times, too, more in line with what readers might have expected of a “reference” work, the book would have been more usable with a different order and sections (for instance, a chapter on certification with a glossary could be joined to others on employment). Consumer and patient privacy pops up here and there – over‐the‐counter services, tort, internet products and consumer protection – and would gain from a section all of its own.

That said, many of the chapters take up the baton and provide advice – how the pharmacist should interpret (and ideally plan) the contract, types of collaborative drug therapy management currently taking place, defences in tort (far more needed here – readers would want to see it!), implications of trademark law for packaging and merchandizing and customer confusion, and the pharmacist's responsibility under the controlled substances legislation. Federal and state law are clearly separated out as it goes along. The introductory chapter provides a framework of the US court system (with websites), followed by another short chapter on types of business organization.

It has a lot to recommend it. The price difference between paperback and hardback makes it wise, for the library that really wants it, to go for the hardback. It alerts, updates, rarely pontificates, and often discusses and interprets. The “desk” here is likely to be the reference desk in an information setting, but the publishers clearly have their sights too on the work‐desk at the pharmacy itself. As a reference book in its own right, because of the rather meandering structure of the articles (despite the index), it might disappoint, although, taken as a whole, it informs and holds its own with rival anthologies of comment in its field. A perceptive essay on the interface between law and ethics makes good reading and confirms that Konnor and his team of contributors have got their feet on the ground.