Licensing
Licensing tests whether you can distinguish the right of an individual to practise from the right of a premises or business to handle medicines. PPB controls both, and the two are not interchangeable.
Practitioner licensing
Registration places a pharmacist or pharmaceutical technologist on the PPB register. Practice additionally requires an Annual Practising Licence (APL), renewed each year after payment of fees and evidence of continuing professional development (CPD). The APL is personal: it does not license a premises, and it does not transfer when the practitioner changes employer. Practitioners must work within their scope, display the licence where required, and notify PPB of changes affecting practice.
Premises and dealer licensing
Retail and wholesale premises must be registered and inspected. A wholesale dealer licence is required for distribution to other businesses. Applications identify the responsible pharmacist or technologist, the storage layout, security, cold-chain capacity, record-keeping systems and standard operating procedures. Changes of location or substantial structural changes require notification and often reinspection. Online sale or supply still requires a licensed premises and PPB authorisation; an unlicensed website is not a lawful pharmacy.
Worked example
An inspection finds a pharmaceutical technologist dispensing while their APL expired two months earlier. The retail premises licence is current. The premises licence covers the premises only; the practitioner needs a valid APL. Dispensing on an expired APL is an offence and a serious inspection finding. The correct response is to stop practice in that capacity, renew the APL, document the corrective action and prevent recurrence through a renewal tracker.
Traps that cost marks
- Equating registration with an Annual Practising Licence.
- Assuming an APL authorises every premises where the holder works.
- Forgetting that wholesale distribution needs a dealer licence.
- Failing to notify PPB of a change of location or responsible person.
- Selling medicines online without licensed premises and authorisation.