Game Changer: Georgia Moving to Allow Pharmacists to Prescribe HIV drugs

by Rebecca Grapevine 

Lawmakers in Georgia, the state with the highest rate of new HIV infections in the country, are moving to allow pharmacists to prescribe and administer HIV prevention drugs.

The bill aims to make the drugs easier to get and lower the costs of care – two challenges that have hampered attempts to stem the number of new cases.

Pharmacists could provide both the pill and long-acting injectable forms of pre-exposure prophylaxis, known as PrEP, which that prevents HIV, as well as PEP, post-exposure prophylaxis, a course of drugs that can prevent HIV after exposure if taken soon enough.

The measure could be “a game changer for shifting the landscape of the epidemic,” said Natalie Crawford, a professor at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health.

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