American Society for Pharmacy Law Track

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October 10, 2017

COMPOUNDING
California Board of Pharmacy seeks sanctions against UCLA compounding pharmacy
The Los Angeles Times reported on September 15 that the California State Board of Pharmacy filed a formal accusation in July against a compounding pharmacy formerly operated by UCLA and its pharmacist-in-charge, seeking sanctions following the discovery by a Board investigator that over a thousand IVs had been compounded with “expired and potentially dangerous ingredients.” At least 350 of the adulterated IVs were delivered to patients in the UCLA Health system, including the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, and the UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica.

The pharmacy was closed within days of the inspection, and the pharmacist-in-charge abruptly resigned and “declared his license ‘inactive,’” according to the report. The accusation cited not only the improper use of expired ingredients, but the failure of the compounding pharmacy to possess the proper specialty license needed to operate as a centralized hospital packaging pharmacy. [Christensen K. UCLA pharmacy closed after state finds it sent out drugs with expired, potentially dangerous ingredients. Los Angeles Times 2017 Sep 15; http://lat.ms/2vYEgcE]