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Board of Pharmacy Update
Highlights of the March Meeting

by Scott A. Meyers, Executive Vice President

The March 13th Board of Pharmacy Meeting was held at the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation Building at 320 West Washington in Springfield. These are the highlights of that meeting.

New Board Member Introduced – Board Chair, Yash Patel introduced Ryan McCann as a new pharmacist member of the Board of Pharmacy. Ryan will replace Ned Milenkovich who served over 10 years on the Board. Mr. Patel thanked Mr. Milenkovich for his many years of service to the State and its citizens.

NABP Annual Meeting – The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy will conduct its Annual Meeting in Denver on May 5-8, 2018. Yash Patel will serve as the Illinois Delegate to the meeting with Ned Milenkovich as first alternate and Denise Scarpelli as second alternate.

Department Update – Luciene Doler, Board of Pharmacy’s new general counsel replacing Katy Straub, provided news from the Department of Financial and Professional Affairs. The Collaborative Pharmaceutical Task Force has met twice so far with another meeting scheduled for that afternoon in Springfield and Chicago. There are still two task force members to be appointed representing IPhA and organized labor.

The public comments on the draft compounding rules are being reviewed by Department staff and a final draft is expected soon. ICHP will notify members of their details when they are approved and when they will become effective.

Robert Nelson and Janelle Kirby were present and introduced as pharmacy investigators.

Election of the Board Vice Chair– with the departure of Mr. Milenkovich, the Board elected Al Carter as its new Vice Chair. Mr. Carter will become the alternate delegate at the NABP Annual Meeting in May and Ms. Denise Scarpelli will become 2nd alternate.

Legislative Update – As ICHP Executive Vice President, I provided this month’s update. The Spring Session of the General Assembly is well underway and there are a variety of bills impacting pharmacy. Several bills address the opioid crisis by amending the Controlled Substance Act. These and all the bills ICHP is monitoring are discussed in the Government Affairs Report in this issue of KeePosted.

Next Meeting – The next meeting of the Board is set for May 15th to begin at 10:30 am in the James R. Thompson Center at Randolph and LaSalle in downtown Chicago. These meetings are open to the public and pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy students are encouraged to attend.