TD calls for pharmacists to 'prescribe antiparasitic medicines' for animals
The Minister for Health has been asked if pharmacists could be enabled to prescribe "antiparasitic medicines for food-producing animals".
The chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food, TD for Cork North West, Aindrias Moynihan, told Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, that pharmacists have raised the Veterinary medicinal Products, Medicated Feed and Fertilisers Regulation Act 2023 with him.
Deputy Moynihan told the Dáil that pharmacists have specifically raised the question about the "dispensing of medication for animals" with him.
"Implementation of the statutory instrument on that is due shortly.
"They (pharmacists) feel very much that this restricts the capacity to make available veterinary medical products, between the cost of getting a prescription and integration with the computer system and in so many different ways," Deputy Moynihan said.
He asked the Minister for Health if "there would be greater integration in, availability of and access to the prescription system".
Deputy Moynihan said: "At the moment, a limited number of vets use the online system. Pharmacists are concerned that there is not access to it.
"Can we also ensure that pharmacists would be enabled to prescribe antiparasitic medicines for food-producing animals?"
In response Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill told Deputy Moynihan that he "has got me".
"I do not know, and I am going to have to find out. I can tell him about estradot patches and so many different things but I cannot tell him about vets, agriculture and pharmacy.
"He has got me, and I am going to have to go back and find a proper answer for him," she added.
From September 1, a veterinary prescription will be required for all antiparasitic veterinary medicinal products for food producing animals.
Digital prescribing via the National Veterinary Prescription System (NVPS) was introduced on January 13 for the prescribing and dispensing of all prescription-only veterinary medicines.
Antiparasitics are prescription-only medicines in all other EU member states. A 2019 report from Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) outlined the requirement for the “up-regulation” of antiparasitics to prescription-only medicines due to evidence of antiparasitic resistance.
