Why is California trying to change the way our children take their medication?

By Sonya Frausto

In a world filled with complex healthcare challenges, the simplest solutions often make the biggest difference — like flavoring kids' medications to help the medicine go down without a fight.

But this simple and established solution may soon be limited in California. To protect this essential service provided by community pharmacies, a major bipartisan group has joined forces in a fight to keep flavoring an option, which is the goal of Assembly Bill (AB) 782.

This coalition includes California Democratic and Republican State legislators; the California Community Pharmacy Coalition; the California Retailers Association; the California Coalition for Children's Safety & Health; Jordan's Guardian Angels, and others.

Medication flavoring is a simple yet transformative service provided at over 3,000 community pharmacies in California and nearly 40,000 pharmacies nationwide. This point-of-care service is specifically designed to improve the taste and smell of children's liquid medications. This service has long been available in California without any reported cases of patient harm resulting from using medication flavoring. This practice has been a non-issue in the United States for decades.

However, the California Board of Pharmacy is preparing to introduce such restrictive regulatory language that only scarce, specialized compounding pharmacies will offer this service.

This has sparked tremendous concern among pharmacists and parents who rely on flavoring for their children to take their medication. And that's why the passage of AB 782 is so important.

For over a decade, California's state regulators have unequivocally stated that the act of flavoring does not fall under the definition of traditional compounding in any practical way. During this time, millions of medications have been flavored without any harm coming to a child.

Furthermore, 49 out of 50 State Boards of Pharmacy nationwide do not regulate flavoring as compounding. This means that 98% of children between the ages of zero to 11, including the six million children in California, live in states where the flavoring of medications is not considered compounding.

California's community pharmacies play a vital role in our healthcare system. They provide a simple and safe service by flavoring medications for patients who might otherwise struggle to take the necessary treatment, especially parents with toddlers and young children.

Without AB 782, the proposed regulation by the California State Board of Pharmacy will strip away this essential service that local pharmacists provide throughout the state, including those serving rural, hard-to-reach, and under-served areas.

As pharmacists, parents, and caregivers, we must be informed about AB 782.

We must protect the health and well-being of our children by preserving their access to flavored medications.

Contact your local representatives, share your stories, and make your voice heard. Together, we can ensure that California remains at the forefront of compassionate and effective healthcare practices for our most vulnerable population: our children.

Sonya Frausto is a frontline pharmacist. She graduated from the University of Southern California with her Doctor of Pharmacy degree and a Master's in Gerontology. She has over 20 years of experience in pharmacy practice, focusing on immunizations, women's health, and functional medicine.