FDA LAW Blog-Not In Our Backyard! Pharmacists and Trade Groups Sue to Block Implementation of Maine Drug Importation Law By Kurt R. Karst –

Earlier this week, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (“PhRMA”), along with several other trade groups – the Maine Pharmacy Association, Maine Society of Health-System Pharmacists, and Retail Association of Maine – and two pharmacists, filed a Complaint and Motion for Preliminary Injunction in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine against Maine’s Attorney General and Commissioner of Administrative & Financial Services in an effort to bar the state from implementing a state law that would permit the importation of drug products into the U.S. from licensed retail pharmacies located in certain foreign countries.  The state law, enacted on June 27, 2013 (after Governor Paul LePage declined to sign the bill) and titled “An Act To Facilitate the Personal Importation of Prescription Drugs from International Mail Order Prescription Pharmacies,” is scheduled to go into effect on October 9, 2013.

The law is pretty short.  Section one amends 32 MRSA §13731, sub-§1 to state:

1. Applicability. It is unlawful for any person to engage in the practice of pharmacy unless licensed to practice under this Act, except that:

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