After over a year of hard work and collaboration with the Missouri Board of Pharmacy and the Missouri Veterinary Medical Board, the MVMA is happy to announce that each of those boards have issued emergency rules that enable Missouri veterinarians to stock (with limitations) compounded drugs to be used in emergencies, until patient-specific prescriptions can be ordered and filled.

These rules are in effect as of March 31, 2019, until January 8, 2020, when the rules require approval by the legislature to make them permanent.

The Missouri Board of Pharmacy rule sets out requirements that allow pharmacies to provide these non-patient specific drugs to Missouri veterinarians for emergency use.

The Missouri Veterinary Medical Board rule governs the quantity allowed, and the rules for dispensing these drugs.

The new veterinary rule states:

“A veterinarian may dispense no more than a seven- (7) day supply per patient from an office stock compounded preparation provided by a licensed pharmacy. A patient-specific prescription must be issued to continue treatment beyond seven (7) days and comply with all other requirements under this rule.”

Although no specific stock quantity per clinic is designated, the MVMA strongly recommends every clinic take into account the conventional demand within their practice, the storage requirements, and the expiration dates for each compounded drug they store and stock, and to be prepared to justify these quantities if the clinic is audited. You should expect unusual scrutiny as you practice under these new rules, and should avoid any perception of using the new rules to skirt the strictly enforced rule that requires a patient-specific prescription outside of the emergency nature of the new rule.  Also, please remember that compounded drug use in food producing animals continues to be illegal and nothing in these new emergency rules change that federal mandate.

MVMA will work diligently to encourage the legislature to make the rules permanent by January.