About the Prescription Drug Marketing Act (PDMA)

Executive Summary of the PDMA Report to Congress, June 2001

The Prescription Drug Marketing Act (PDMA) of 1987 (P.L. 100-293, 102 Stat. 95) is a law of the United States federal government. It establishes legal safeguards for prescription drug distribution to ensure safe and effective pharmaceuticals. It's designed to discourage the sale of counterfeit, adulterated, misbranded, subpotent, and expired prescription drugs. It was passed in response to the development of a wholesale sub-market (known as the "diversion market") for prescription drugs.

FDA's implementation of the Prescription Drug Marketing Act of 1987

Am J Hosp Pharm. 1988 Oct;45(10):2118-26.

The Prescription Drug Marketing Act of 1987 — modified by the Prescription Drug Amendments of 1992 — establishes legal safeguards for human prescription drug marketing and distribution to ensure safe and effective pharmaceuticals. It is designed to discourage the sale of counterfeit, adulterated, misbranded, subpotent and expired prescription drugs. Among other things, the PDMA prohibited, with certain exceptions, the sale, purchase or trade of any prescription drug that was purchased by a hospital or other health care entity. Wholesale distributors of drugs or retail pharmacies licensed under state law are not included in the term "entity." Regulations related to this section of the PDMA were issued in 1999, but FDA delayed the effective date on several occasions due to numerous concerns raised by various stakeholders.

MedProID has tools to aid pharmaceutical companies in achieving PDMA compliance, understand regulations & consolidate information into an accessible database.