New law allows timelier access to generic drugs

By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Staff Writer

Generic drugs would be available to Hawai'i customers more quickly under a bill signed into law yesterday by Gov. Linda Lingle.

Senate Bill 1361 allows generic drugs that are therapeutically equivalent to name-brand drugs to be dispensed when it is approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration and the Hawai'i Drug Product Selection Board. Current state law doesn't allow new generic drugs to be dispensed until they are listed in an FDA-approved book, and advocates said that sometimes takes several months.

The new law will also allow prescriptions to be submitted by e-mail or fax, and require generic drug labels to include the name of its equivalent brand name to help patients know what medicine they are taking.

Advocates said the new law would help the poor and uninsured by increasing access to lower-cost generic drugs.

The bill is one of several efforts to lower the cost burden of prescription drugs on the elderly and the poor. A state program in which needy patients at state hospitals and Hawai'i Primary Care Association clinics would be given help applying for free prescription drugs is expected to begin in September, Lingle said.