CHAPTER 384

S.P. 111 - L.D. 329

An Act to Encourage the Use of Generic Drugs

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:

Sec. 1. 32 MRSA §13781, as amended by PL 1997, c. 245, §§13 and 14, is further amended to read:

§13781. Generic and therapeutically equivalent

substitution

A written prescription issued by a practitioner in this State may contain a box in the lower right-hand corner of the prescription form. The following words must appear to the left of this box: "Any drug which is the generic and therapeutic equivalent of the drug specified above in this prescription may must be dispensed, provided that no check mark ( ) has been handwritten in the box in the lower right-hand corner."

Any pharmacist receiving a prescription in which no handwritten check mark ( ) is found in the box provided may shall substitute a generic and therapeutically equivalent drug for the drug specified on the prescription if the substituted drug is distributed by a business entity doing business in the United States that is subject to suit and the service of legal process in the United States and that the price of the substituted drug does not exceed the price of the drug specified by the practitioner; except that, when the cost of a prescription is to be reimbursed under the MaineCare program pursuant to Title 22,