Can veterinarians comply with state and federal requirements for the Veterinary Client Patient Relationship and practice via telemedicine? Nearly, if not all states, have some requirements regarding the establishment and maintenance of a veterinarian-client-patient relationships (VCPR) before the veterinarian can treat an animal owned by a client.  In New Jersey, for example, the regulations (not statute) defines the VCPR as i) The veterinarian has undertaken to make medical judgments regarding the health of an animal…

I was recently a panelist at the 2019 annual meeting of the New Jersey State Bar Association discussing legal issues about how to share pets after divorce.  As pets become increasingly important in many households in the United States, their disposition after divorce has become the subject of legal disputes during divorce.  Analysis of the economics related to pet ownership should be used as a tool to help inform adjudicators decide where the beloved pet…

Rabies is a nearly 100% fatal disease when unvaccinated animals and humans are exposed.  As previously discussed the risk of exposure to rabies from dogs imported from other countries, especially from Egypt, has increased exponentially resulting from the shift from pets purchased from USDA licensed or exempt breeders in to the unregulated sales of pets increasingly imported from other countries. On May 10, 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though publication in the …

On October 30, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration “announced the Plant and Animal Biotechnology Innovation Action Plan to outline the key priorities the agency will pursue to support innovation in plant and animal biotechnology while advancing the agency’s public health mission. The overall goal of the action plan is to ensure the safety of plant and animal products of biotechnology while avoiding unnecessary barriers to future innovation.” See  https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/cvm-updates/fda-announces-plant-and-animal-biotechnology-innovation-action-plan. Both Acting FDA Commissioner…

I attended the Annual Conference of the Food and Drug Law Institute held in Washington, D.C. on May 2-3, 2019, a truly informative and well-orchestrated conference that included sessions discussing all manner of issues facing industries and attorneys representing their interests from medicines, medical devices, food, cosmetics, tobacco, cannabis, including topics I found most compelling for my practice—animal drugs and animal-related innovations. Norman E. ‘Ned’ Sharpless, MD, Acting Commissioner of Food and Drugs – Food…

Oregon HB 2804 was soundly defeated after hearing testimony from dog enthusiasts and veterinarians in a dogged effort by Patti Strand and the National Animal Interest Alliance (NAIA) to educate the legislators about the harm to people, animals and businesses that would result if the bill became law. NAIA, founded in 1991, is a national animal welfare organization headquartered in Portland that was “created to provide fact-based answers to complex and controversial issues regarding animals.”…

As previously described, FDA has updated its Draft Guidance for Industry, #120, regarding the Veterinary Feed Directive Regulation. The intersection of federal and state law impacted by this regulation is interesting. Specifically, what is the impact to a veterinarian when the Veterinarian-Client-Patient relationship as defined by the relevant state law (governing that veterinarian’s license) conflicts with or is otherwise different from FDA’s definition? FDA has revised its guidance regarding this issue, quoted here.  See…