Transferring your license? Note NABP's amended bylaws

It sounds like one of those tedious Robert's Rules of Order procedural niceties only a parliamentarian could love, but a change in the bylaws of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy will eventually pay dividends for pharmacists seeking to transfer their licenses.

State pharmacy boards that do not require R.Ph.s seeking transfer to keep up their licenses in the state where they were originally admitted to practice are now in compliance with NABP bylaws. During the recent NABP annual meeting in New Orleans, the boards agreed by a 33-to-11 vote to a bylaw change that now requires a transfer applicant to have a "license in good standing" from an NABP member board. Previously, the bylaws stipulated that a license had to be transferred from the original state of licensure.

Currently about half of the pharmacy boards do not require a transfer applicant to maintain his or her original license. "The trend is toward not requiring pharmacists to keep their original licensure," said Carmen Catizone, NABP executive director. "In other words, we're saying that an original licensure and licensure by transfer are equivalent. That is good news for pharmacists, but they will have to keep their original licensure until all the boards change over."

In other official action at the meeting, the delegates approved several resolutions, including the following: