Review of Court’s Judicial Precedents for Community Pharmacists’ Misconducts

Abstract

Registered pharmacists are required to comply with current laws related to pharmacist practice. This study investigated the precedents of community pharmacists’ misconduct. The cases disclosed to the public on the Korean court’s websites (Comprehensive Legal Information website and Major Court Rulings website) were searched in April 19, 2021, using a keyword “pharmacist”. The selection criteria included case pronounced after July 2000 (implementation of the separation of prescription and dispensing), case that pharmacists was the plaintiffs or the defendants, and case that violated the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act or the National Health Insurance Act. For nineteen cases finally selected which satisfied with eligibility criteria, detailed information for each case were collected from the websites. Based on the provisions of related laws, misconducts of those cases were classified into seven categories: Four cases of license lending, seven cases of illegal drug dispensing and sales, two cases of collusion with medical institutions, two cases of violations of medication guidance obligations, one case of indiscriminate sales of medicines liable to misuse or abuse, two cases of unfair customer inducements, and one case of rebate and undue pressure exercise. The most frequent misconduct types were unfair receipts of medical care benefits and dispensing or sale of medicines by unqualified persons. Learning about the precedents shown in this study is expected to be an guide for individual pharmacists to increase their sensitivity to ethics and compliance with the laws and to be careful about the possible violations in advance.