Policy and legislative purpose
- The Act regulates the holding of examinations for persons desiring to practice pharmacy by prescribing examination subjects, qualification conditions, and examination fee rules under Section 16.
- The Act limits pharmacy practice coverage by defining when the pharmacy law does not apply to certain actors and transactions under Section 23.
- The Act authorizes the examining board to issue enforcement rules and prescribe penalties within fixed maximum limits under Section 16.
Definitions and qualification requirements
- “Examination fee” under Section 16 is ten dollars paid to the secretary-treasurer of the board for admission to the examination.
- “Second-class pharmacist (practicante de farmacia)” is a category for which no certificate may be issued by the board to examination applicants under Section 16.
- “Registered pharmacist’s certificate” is issued by the pharmaceutical examining board to persons who pass the examination described in Section 16 under the same section’s conditions.
- “Apprentices in pharmacy” under Section 16 refers to registration in the office of the secretary of the board as apprentices before admission to the examination.
- “Practical experience” under Section 16 requires at least two years in a pharmacy where physicians’ or veterinarians’ prescriptions are compounded and where drugs, medicines, and poisons are sold at retail.
Examination subjects, programme, and timing
- The examination for applicants is held in the following subjects under Section 16:
- General chemistry, inorganic chemistry and organic chemistry applied to pharmacy;
- physics as applied to pharmacy;
- botany, pharmacology, pharmacognosy, qualitative analytical chemistry and its especial application to the analysis of medicines and food stuffs, quantitative analytical chemistry, elementary toxicology and toxicological analysis and microscopy;
- practical pharmaceutical preparations and compounding of prescriptions.
- The examining board must prepare the programme of subjects in a way that contains all knowledge required for a candidate to show capability to practice pharmacy under Section 16.
- The programme must be approved by the Secretary of the Interior and must be published three months before the date of the examination under Section 16.
- If the examining board wishes to introduce alterations later to the programme, those alterations must also be approved by the Secretary of the Interior and must be published three months before the examination date under Section 16.
Who must apply and what must be shown
- Every person desiring to practice pharmacy in the Philippine Islands after the passage of the Act must apply to the board of pharmaceutical examiners for a certificate of registration as registered pharmacist under Section 16.
- No certificate as second-class pharmacist (practicante de farmacia) may be issued by the board to applicants under Section 16.
- To be admitted to examination, applicants must:
- pay the secretary-treasurer of the board ten dollars as an examination fee under Section 16;
- establish they completed twenty-one years of age under Section 16;
- establish they were graduated from a legally chartered school, college or university under Section 16;
- establish they have been registered in the office of the secretary of the board as apprentices in pharmacy under Section 16;
- establish they have had at least two years' practical experience in a pharmacy where prescriptions are compounded and where drugs, medicines, and poisons are sold at retail under Section 16.
- The ten dollars examination fee also serves as a fee entitling applicants to the certificate mentioned in Section 5 if they pass under Section 16.
- Starting July 1, 1913, every person presenting for examination who has graduated from a legally chartered school, college or university where the subjects or pharmaceutical studies are taught must submit satisfactory evidence that the applicant followed and was examined in preliminary studies in a school, college or university approved by the Secretary of Public Instruction under Section 16.
- Any person previously admitted to examination may present for examination later without meeting the requirements relating to preliminary studies in a college approved by the Secretary of Public Instruction under Section 16.
- Any candidate who has failed to pass the examination satisfactorily three times may not again be examined before the board prior to one year from the date the candidate was admitted to the last examination under Section 16.
Certificates, board authority, and penalties for violations
- The pharmaceutical examining board must issue a registered pharmacist's certificate to any person who passes the examination under Section 16.
- The examining board must issue no certificate of practiante de farmacia to any second-class pharmacist under Section 16.
- The examining board is authorized to issue rules not in conflict with the Act provisions for enforcement under Section 16.
- The examining board may prescribe penalties in those regulations not exceeding one hundred dollars fine and two months’ imprisonment, or both, at the discretion of the court under Section 16.
- Rules issued by the examining board have the force of law when approved by the Secretary of the Interior under Section 16.
Coverage limits: who is exempted
- The Act does not apply (except to the labeling of poisons) under Section 23 to:
- registered physicians putting up their own prescriptions or dispensing medicines to their patients;
- persons selling drugs, medicines, chemicals, chemical wholesale vendors, agents, or poisons at wholesale only;
- persons selling nonpoisonous household remedies and mineral medicinal waters under Section 23.
- The examining board has authority to determine what medicines are considered as nonpoisonous household remedies under Section 23, with approval of the Secretary of the Interior.
- The sale of nonpoisonous household remedies by other persons than registered pharmacists is strictly prohibited in places that are not more than five kilometers distant from an established pharmacy under Section 23.
Enacted amendments, repeals, and separability
- Section 1 amends Section 16 of Act No. 597, as amended by Act No. 1921, to establish the updated examination subjects, fees, qualifications, programme publication requirements, certificate rules, and delegated rulemaking and penalty limits under Section 1.
- Section 2 amends Section 23 of Act No. 597 to update exemptions from the Act’s application (including physician dispensing and wholesale sales) and to regulate nonpoisonous household remedies within five kilometers of an established pharmacy under Section 2.
- The Act is enacted on February 10, 1913 and includes the qualification timing rule starting July 1, 1913 under Section 1.