In defense of the Drug Research Board.

ANTISUBSTITUTION laws were adopted by most states after World War II to prevent the dispensing of counterfeit drugs to patients. These laws have served their purpose well. Recently, however, there have been attempts to repeal or at least to modify these laws to allow the pharmacist's selection of the drug product to be dispensed. Several states have already modified their laws to allow such substitution. The rationale for these modifications is that the pharmacist is the member of the health care team most knowledgeable about biopharmaceutics and, therefore, the best equipped to make this type of decision. The pharmacist, as demonstrated in a recent study, 1 is capable of utilizing bioavailability data in a manner similar to experts. The problem, however, is more complex. On Oct 25, 1974, the Drug Research Board of the National Research Council passed a resolution, which was subsequently approved by the Assembly of Life Sciences