A PHARMACIST'S DUTY TO WARN: SOUND ECONOMICS, EFFECTIVE MEDICINE, AND CONSISTENT WITH DRUG REGULATION THEORY

Abstract

This paper argues in favor of a duty to warn on the part of the pharmacist. In the next section, I begin with a discussion of two common regulatory approaches to warning patients of prescription drug hazards and flesh out their inadequacies. In section three, I will discuss the legal status of the pharmacist's duty to warn and the negative reaction to the current trends in that doctrine. Then, in section four, I will go on to propose an alternative model for the duty to warn, explore arguments in support of this model, and finally attempt to reconcile the proposed duty to warn scheme with the primary theoretical underpinnings of drug regulation in the United States.