Bill Text: MS HB1434 | 2026 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Auto-injectable epinephrine devices; authorize restaurants to obtain from Health Dept or from pharmacies under a standing order.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)
Status: (Failed) 2026-02-03 - Died In Committee [HB1434 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2026-HB1434-Introduced.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2026 Regular Session
To: Public Health and Human Services
By: Representative Gibbs (72nd)
House Bill 1434
AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE RESTAURANT OWNERS TO OBTAIN AUTO-INJECTABLE EPINEPHRINE DEVICES FROM THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH OR FROM A PHARMACY UNDER A STANDING ORDER ISSUED BY A HEALTH CARE PRACTITIONER; TO REQUIRE RESTAURANTS THAT OBTAIN AUTO-INJECTABLE EPINEPHRINE DEVICES TO REQUIRE AT LEAST ONE EMPLOYEE AT THE RESTAURANT TO RECEIVE TRAINING FROM A PRACTITIONER IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF AUTO-INJECTABLE EPINEPHRINE; TO AUTHORIZE RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES WHO ARE TRAINED IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF AUTO-INJECTABLE EPINEPHRINE, ACTING IN GOOD FAITH AND WITH REASONABLE CARE TO A PERSON IN THE RESTAURANT WHOM THEY BELIEVE TO BE HAVING AN ANAPHYLACTIC REACTION, TO ADMINISTER TO SUCH PERSON AUTO-INJECTABLE EPINEPHRINE THAT WAS OBTAINED AS PROVIDED IN THIS ACT; TO AUTHORIZE THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TO OBTAIN AND DISTRIBUTE AUTO-INJECTABLE EPINEPHRINE DEVICES TO THE OWNER OF A RESTAURANT UPON A REQUEST MADE IN WRITING; TO REQUIRE THE RESTAURANT OWNER TO PAY THE FULL COST OF THE AUTO-INJECTABLE EPINEPHRINE DEVICES OBTAINED FROM THE DEPARTMENT; TO AUTHORIZE PRACTITIONERS TO ISSUE A STANDING ORDER TO ONE OR MORE INDIVIDUAL PHARMACIES THAT AUTHORIZES THE PHARMACY TO DISPENSE AUTO-INJECTABLE EPINEPHRINE DEVICES TO RESTAURANT OWNERS WITHOUT THEM NEEDING TO HAVE AN INDIVIDUAL PRESCRIPTION; TO AUTHORIZE PHARMACISTS TO DISPENSE AUTO-INJECTABLE EPINEPHRINE DEVICES TO RESTAURANT OWNERS UNDER A STANDING ORDER ISSUED BY A PRACTITIONER; TO PROVIDE CIVIL AND CRIMINAL IMMUNITY TO TRAINED RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES WHO ADMINISTER OR ASSIST IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF AUTO-INJECTABLE EPINEPHRINE TO A PERSON IN THE RESTAURANT WHOM THEY BELIEVE TO BE HAVING AN ANAPHYLACTIC REACTION; TO ALSO PROVIDE CIVIL AND CRIMINAL IMMUNITY TO THE RESTAURANT, ANY PRACTITIONER WHO ISSUED THE STANDING ORDER FOR THE DEVICE, ANY PHARMACIST WHO DISPENSED THE DEVICE, ANY EMPLOYEE OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH WHO DISTRIBUTED THE DEVICE, AND ANY PERSON WHO PROVIDED THE TRAINING IN THE USE OF THE DEVICE; TO AMEND SECTION 73-21-73, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CONFORM TO THE PRECEDING PROVISIONS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. (1) As used in this section, the following terms shall be defined as provided in this subsection:
(a) "Auto-injectable epinephrine device" means a medical device for the immediate administration of epinephrine to a person at risk for anaphylaxis.
(b) "Practitioner" means a physician licensed to practice medicine in this state or any licensed health care provider who is authorized to prescribe auto-injectable epinephrine devices.
(c) "Restaurant" means a restaurant with a food permit from the State Department of Health that has ten (10) or more seats.
(2) The owner of a restaurant may obtain one or more auto-injectable epinephrine devices from the State Department of Health or from a pharmacy under a standing order issued by a practitioner as provided in this section. All such auto-injectable epinephrine devices must be kept at the restaurant in a locked, secure and easily accessible location.
(3) Each restaurant that obtains auto-injectable epinephrine devices as provided in this section shall require at least one (1) employee at the restaurant to receive training from a practitioner in the administration of auto-injectable epinephrine.
(4) An employee of a restaurant who is trained in the administration of auto-injectable epinephrine, acting in good faith and with reasonable care to a person in the restaurant whom he or she believes to be having an anaphylactic reaction, may administer to such person auto-injectable epinephrine that was obtained from the State Department of Health or obtained from a pharmacy under a standing issued by a practitioner.
(5) The State Department of Health may obtain and distribute auto-injectable epinephrine devices to the owner of a restaurant upon a request made in writing by the restaurant owner. The restaurant owner must pay the full cost of the auto-injectable epinephrine devices obtained from the department.
(6) A practitioner acting in good faith and in compliance with the standard of care applicable to that practitioner may issue a standing order to one or more individual pharmacies that authorizes the pharmacy to dispense auto-injectable epinephrine devices to the owner of a restaurant, without the owner of the restaurant needing to have an individual prescription.
(7) A pharmacist acting in good faith and in compliance with the standard of care applicable to pharmacists may dispense auto-injectable epinephrine devices to the owner of a restaurant under a standing order issued by a practitioner.
(8) Any employee of a restaurant who is trained in the administration of auto-injectable epinephrine, acting in good faith and with reasonable care, who administers or assists in the administration of auto-injectable epinephrine to a person in the restaurant whom he or she believes to be having an anaphylactic reaction, shall be immune from civil and criminal liability for any personal injury as a result of that care or treatment if the employee's actions or failure to act do not amount to willful or wanton misconduct or gross negligence.
(9) The immunity from civil and criminal liability for any personal injury provided under subsection (8) of this section also includes:
(a) The restaurant that legally obtained the auto-injectable epinephrine device;
(b) Any practitioner who issued the standing order for the auto-injectable epinephrine device;
(c) Any pharmacy and pharmacist who dispensed the auto-injectable epinephrine device under the standing order;
(d) Any employee of the State Department of Health who distributed auto-injectable epinephrine device; and
(e) Any person who provided the training in the use of the auto-injectable epinephrine device.
SECTION 2. Section 73-21-73, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
73-21-73. As used in this chapter, unless the context requires otherwise:
(a) "Administer" means the direct application of a prescription drug pursuant to a lawful order of a practitioner to the body of a patient by injection, inhalation, ingestion or any other means.
(b) "Biological product" means the same as that term is defined in 42 USC Section 262.
(c) "Board of Pharmacy," "Pharmacy Board," "MSBP" or "board" means the State Board of Pharmacy.
(d) "Compounding" means (i) the production, preparation, propagation, conversion or processing of a sterile or nonsterile drug or device either directly or indirectly by extraction from substances of natural origin or independently by means of chemical or biological synthesis or from bulk chemicals or the preparation, mixing, measuring, assembling, packaging or labeling of a drug or device as a result of a practitioner's prescription drug order or initiative based on the practitioner/patient/pharmacist relationship in the course of professional practice, or (ii) for the purpose of, as an incident to, research, teaching or chemical analysis and not for sale or dispensing. Compounding also includes the preparation of drugs or devices in anticipation of prescription drug orders based on routine regularly observed prescribing patterns.
(e) "Continuing education unit" means ten (10) clock hours of study or other such activity as may be approved by the board, including, but not limited to, all programs which have been approved by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education.
(f) "Deliver" or "delivery" means the actual, constructive or attempted transfer in any manner of a drug or device from one (1) person to another, whether or not for a consideration, including, but not limited to, delivery by mailing or shipping.
(g) "Device" means an instrument, apparatus, implement, machine, contrivance, implant, in vitro reagent or other similar or related article, including any component part or accessory which is required under federal or state law to be prescribed by a practitioner.
(h) "Dispense" or "dispensing" means the interpretation of a valid prescription of a practitioner by a pharmacist and the subsequent preparation of the drug or device for administration to or use by a patient or other individual entitled to receive the drug and includes delivery of the drug or device to the patient.
(i) "Distribute" means the delivery of a drug or device other than by administering or dispensing to persons other than the ultimate consumer.
(j) "Drug" means:
(i) Articles recognized as drugs in the official United States Pharmacopeia, official National Formulary, official Homeopathic Pharmacopeia, other drug compendium or any supplement to any of them;
(ii) Articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease in man or other animals;
(iii) Articles other than food intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals; and
(iv) Articles intended for use as a component of any articles specified in subparagraph (i), (ii) or (iii) of this paragraph.
(k) "Extern" means a student in the professional program of a school of pharmacy accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education who is making normal progress toward completion of a professional degree in pharmacy.
(l) "Foreign pharmacy graduate" means a person whose undergraduate pharmacy degree was conferred by a recognized school of pharmacy outside of the United States, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Recognized schools of pharmacy are those colleges and universities listed in the World Health Organization's World Directory of Schools of Pharmacy, or otherwise approved by the Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Examination Committee (FPGEC) certification program as established by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.
(m) "Generic equivalent drug product" means a drug product which (i) contains the identical active chemical ingredient of the same strength, quantity and dosage form; (ii) is of the same generic drug name as determined by the United States Adoptive Names and accepted by the United States Food and Drug Administration; and (iii) conforms to such rules and regulations as may be adopted by the board for the protection of the public to assure that such drug product is therapeutically equivalent.
(n) "Interchangeable biological product" or "I.B." means a biological product that the federal Food and Drug Administration:
(i) Has licensed and determined as meeting the standards for interchangeability under 42 USC Section 262(k)(4); or
(ii) Has determined is therapeutically equivalent as set forth in the latest edition of or supplement to the federal Food and Drug Administration's Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations.
(o) "Intern" means a person who has graduated from a school of pharmacy but has not yet become licensed as a pharmacist.
(p) "Manufacturer" means a person, business or other entity engaged in the production, preparation, propagation, conversion or processing of a prescription drug or device, if such actions are associated with promotion and marketing of such drugs or devices.
(q) "Manufacturer's distributor" means any person or business who is not an employee of a manufacturer, but who distributes sample drugs or devices, and defined under paragraph (i) of this section, under contract or business arrangement for a manufacturer to practitioners.
(r) "Manufacturing" of prescription products means the production, preparation, propagation, conversion or processing of a drug or device, either directly or indirectly, by extraction from substances from natural origin or independently by means of chemical or biological synthesis, or from bulk chemicals and includes any packaging or repackaging of the drug or device or labeling or relabeling of the container of the drug or device for resale by pharmacies, practitioners, business entities or other persons.
(s) "Misappropriation of a prescription drug" means to illegally or unlawfully convert a drug, as defined in this section, to one's own use or to the use of another.
(t) "Nonprescription drugs" means nonnarcotic medicines or drugs that may be sold without a prescription and are prepackaged and labeled for use by the consumer in accordance with the requirements of the statutes and regulations of this state and the federal government.
(u) "Person" means an individual, corporation, partnership, association or any other legal entity.
(v) "Pharmacist" means an individual health care provider licensed by this state to engage in the practice of pharmacy. This recognizes a pharmacist as a learned professional who is authorized to provide patient services.
(w) "Pharmacy" means any location for which a pharmacy permit is required and in which prescription drugs are maintained, compounded and dispensed for patients by a pharmacist. This definition includes any location where pharmacy-related services are provided by a pharmacist.
(x) "Prepackaging" means the act of placing small precounted quantities of drug products in containers suitable for dispensing or administering in anticipation of prescriptions or orders.
(y) "Unlawful or unauthorized possession" means physical holding or control by a pharmacist of a controlled substance outside the usual and lawful course of employment.
(z) "Practice of pharmacy" means a health care service that includes, but is not limited to, the compounding, dispensing, and labeling of drugs or devices; interpreting and evaluating prescriptions; administering and distributing drugs and devices; the compounding, dispensing and labeling of drugs and devices; maintaining prescription drug records; advising and consulting concerning therapeutic values, content, hazards and uses of drugs and devices; initiating or modifying of drug therapy in accordance with written guidelines or protocols previously established and approved by the board; selecting drugs; participating in drug utilization reviews; storing prescription drugs and devices; ordering lab work in accordance with written guidelines or protocols as defined in this section; providing pharmacotherapeutic consultations; supervising supportive personnel and such other acts, services, operations or transactions necessary or incidental to the conduct of the foregoing.
(aa) "Practitioner" means a physician, dentist, veterinarian, or other health care provider authorized by law to diagnose and prescribe drugs.
(bb) "Prescription" means a written, verbal or electronically transmitted order issued by a practitioner for a drug or device to be dispensed for a patient by a pharmacist. "Prescription" includes a standing order issued by a practitioner to an individual pharmacy that authorizes the pharmacy to dispense an opioid antagonist to certain persons without the person to whom the opioid antagonist is dispensed needing to have an individual prescription, as authorized by Section 41-29-319(3). "Prescription" also includes a standing order issued by a practitioner to one or more individual pharmacies that authorizes the pharmacy to dispense auto-injectable epinephrine devices to certain persons without the person to whom the auto-injectable epinephrine device is dispensed needing to have an individual prescription, as authorized by Section 1 of this act.
(cc) "Prescription drug" or "legend drug" means a drug which is required under federal law to be labeled with either of the following statements prior to being dispensed or delivered:
(i) "Caution: Federal law prohibits dispensing without prescription," or
(ii) "Caution: Federal law restricts this drug to use by or on the order of a licensed veterinarian"; or a drug which is required by any applicable federal or state law or regulation to be dispensed on prescription only or is restricted to use by practitioners only.
(dd) "Product selection" means the dispensing of a generic equivalent drug product or an interchangeable biological product in lieu of the drug product ordered by the prescriber.
(ee) "Provider" or "primary health care provider" includes a pharmacist who provides health care services within his or her scope of practice pursuant to state law and regulation.
(ff) "Registrant" means a pharmacy or other entity which is registered with the Mississippi State Board of Pharmacy to buy, sell or maintain controlled substances.
(gg) "Repackager" means a person registered by the federal Food and Drug Administration as a repackager who removes a prescription drug product from its marketed container and places it into another, usually of smaller size, to be distributed to persons other than the consumer.
(hh) "Reverse distributor" means a business operator that is responsible for the receipt and appropriate return or disposal of unwanted, unneeded or outdated stocks of controlled or uncontrolled drugs from a pharmacy.
(ii) "Supportive personnel" or "pharmacist technician" means those individuals utilized in pharmacies whose responsibilities are to provide nonjudgmental technical services concerned with the preparation and distribution of drugs under the direct supervision and responsibility of a pharmacist.
(jj) "Written guideline or protocol" means an agreement in which any practitioner authorized to prescribe drugs delegates to a pharmacist authority to conduct specific prescribing functions in an institutional setting, or with the practitioner's individual patients, provided that a specific protocol agreement between the practitioner and the pharmacist is signed and filed as required by law or by rule or regulation of the board.
(kk) "Wholesaler" means a person who buys or otherwise acquires prescription drugs or prescription devices for resale or distribution, or for repackaging for resale or distribution, to persons other than consumers.
(ll) "Pharmacy benefit manager" has the same meaning as defined in Section 73-21-153.
(mm) "Pharmacy services administrative organization" means any entity that contracts with a pharmacy or pharmacist to assist with third-party interactions and that may provide a variety of other administrative services, including, but not limited to, contracting with pharmacy benefit managers on behalf of pharmacies and providing pharmacies with credentialing, billing, audit, general business and analytic support. A covered entity as defined in 42 USC Section 256b, including its pharmacy or the transactions related to the 340B drug discount program of any pharmacy contracted with the participating covered entity to dispense drugs purchased through the 340B drug discount program, shall not be considered to be a pharmacy services administrative organization.
SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2026.
