Sponsored by:
Senator LORETTA WEINBERG
District 37 (Bergen)
SYNOPSIS
Requires monitoring of prescriptions for human growth hormones.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning the monitoring of human growth hormone prescriptions and supplementing Title 45 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 25 of P.L.2007, c.244 (C.45:1-45) to the contrary, the Director of the Division of Consumer Affairs in the Department of Law and Public Safety shall expand the Prescription Monitoring Program to include the monitoring of each prescription dispensed for human growth hormones.
2. Pursuant to the “Administrative Procedure Act,” P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), the Director of the Division of Consumer Affairs in the Department of Law and Public Safety shall adopt rules and regulations necessary to effectuate the purposes of this act.
3. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill requires that the Director of the Division of Consumer Affairs in the Department of Law and Public Safety, include human growth hormones among the drugs to be monitored in the Prescription Monitoring Program, established in section 25 of P.L.2007, c.244 (C.45:1-45).
Human growth hormone is not a controlled dangerous substance under federal and State controlled substances laws. Therefore, prescriptions for human growth hormones would not be monitored as a matter of course under the program. The director is authorized, pursuant to section 27 of P.L.2007, c.244 (C.45:1-47), to expand the program to monitor drugs such as human growth hormones after a protracted process. The process requires that the director initially determine that the drug should be monitored, taking into consideration various factors, including potential for abuse, scientific evidence or its pharmacological effects, history and current patterns of abuse, and the risk to the public health. Following that, the director is then required to monitor the drug on a temporary basis, after which the director has the discretion to permanently add the drug to the monitoring program, which must follow the regulatory process of publication in the New Jersey Register.
In light of investigations that have revealed significant abuses in the use of human growth hormones throughout this State that pose a risk to the public’s health and safety, this bill is intended to ensure that human growth hormones are added to the monitoring program, and that they are added as soon as possible.