Montana Code Annotated 2023

TITLE 37. PROFESSIONS AND OCCUPATIONS

CHAPTER 2. GENERAL PROVISIONS RELATING TO HEALTH CARE PRACTITIONERS

Part 1. Prescribing and Dispensing of Drugs

Practices Declared Unlawful Between Drug Companies And Medical Practitioners -- Exception

37-2-102. Practices declared unlawful between drug companies and medical practitioners -- exception. (1) Except as provided in subsection (2), it is unlawful:

(a) for a drug company to give or sell to a medical practitioner any legal or beneficial interest in the company or in the income of the company with the intent or for the purpose of inducing the medical practitioner to prescribe to patients the drugs of the company. The giving or selling of an interest by the company to a medical practitioner without the interest first having been publicly offered to the general public is prima facie evidence of the intent or purpose.

(b) for a medical practitioner to acquire or own a legal or beneficial interest in any drug company, provided it is not unlawful for a medical practitioner to acquire or own an interest solely for investment, and the acquisition of an interest that is publicly offered to the general public is prima facie evidence of its acquisition solely for investment; or

(c) for a medical practitioner to solicit or to knowingly receive from a drug company or for a drug company to pay or to promise to pay to a medical practitioner any rebate, refund, discount, commission, or other valuable consideration for, on account of, or based upon the volume of wholesale or retail sales, at any place, of drugs manufactured, processed, packaged, or distributed by the company.

(2) Subsection (1)(c) does not prohibit a pharmacy licensed under Title 37, chapter 7, from undertaking activities allowed under Title 37, chapter 7.

History: En. Sec. 2, Ch. 311, L. 1971; R.C.M. 1947, 27-902; amd. Sec. 1350, Ch. 56, L. 2009; amd. Sec. 3, Ch. 322, L. 2023.