Georgia bill expands pharmacists’ role in prescribing HIV prevention drugs

Pharmacists are getting more power this legislative session as lawmakers look for ways to make medications more accessible.

A bipartisan bill would allow pharmacists to order and dispense or inject preventative HIV drugs, such as PrEP or PEP. Senate Bill 195 passed the Georgia House by a wide margin last week, according to The Capitol Beat.

Only seven Republicans opposed the legislation.

State Rep. Karla Drenner, D-Avondale Estates, said that patients would no longer need a primary care provider to get a prescription.

“Communities with provider shortages, and in urban communities where appointment demands exceed capacity, pharmacies are often the most accessible health care point in both places: open longer hours, close to where people live and already trusted,” she said.

Georgians are diagnosed with HIV at twice the national rate, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health research and policy institute.

The legislation would allow pharmacists to administer 30- to 90-day supplies of preexposure drugs and a 30-day supply of postexposure drugs.

Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, introduced the bill and told The Capitol Beat that the medicine helps prevent the need for very costly medical care.

“I’m in healthcare, I do anesthesia, and I look at the data, and the data says this is far, far more cost effective to prevent it then to treat it, as many things are in medicine,” he said. “This medicine, at about $26, is far cheaper than the cost of treating somebody with an HIV infection, which would be about $420,000 to $1 million — and obviously an improved quality of life.”