106-145.2. Definitions.
The following definitions apply in this Article:
(1) Blood. - Whole blood collected from a single donor and processed either for transfusion or further manufacturing.
(2) Blood component. - That part of blood separated by physical or mechanical means.
(3) Commissioner. - The Commissioner of Agriculture.
(4) Common control. - The power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of a person, whether by ownership of stock, by voting rights, by contract, or otherwise.
(5) Department. - The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
(6) Drug sample. - A unit of a prescription drug that is not intended to be sold and is intended to promote the sale of the drug.
(7) Manufacturer. - A person who is engaged in manufacturing, preparing, propagating, compounding, processing, packaging, repackaging, or labeling a prescription drug.
(8) Person. - An individual, a corporation, a partnership, or any other entity.
(9) Prescription drug. - A human drug required by federal law or regulation to be dispensed only by a prescription, including finished dosage forms and active ingredients subject to 21 U.S.C. 353(b). Only for the purposes of the provisions of this Article, the term "prescription drug" shall include pseudoephedrine products as defined in G.S. 90-113.51 that may be dispensed without a prescription.
(10) Wholesale distribution. - Distribution of a prescription drug to a person who is not a consumer or patient, other than any of the following types of distributions:
a. Intracompany sales. An intracompany sale is a transaction or transfer between any divisions, subsidiary and parent companies, or affiliated companies under common control of the same corporate entity.
b. The purchase or other acquisition of a prescription drug by a hospital or other health care entity that is a member of a group purchasing organization for its own use from the group purchasing organization or from other hospitals or other health care entities that are members of these organizations.
c. The sale, purchase, or trade of a prescription drug or an offer to sell, purchase, or trade a prescription drug by a charitable organization described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code to a nonprofit affiliate of the organization to the extent otherwise permitted by law.
d. The sale, purchase, or trade of a prescription drug or an offer to sell, purchase, or trade a prescription drug among hospitals or other health care entities that are under common control.
e. The sale, purchase, or trade of a prescription drug or an offer to sell, purchase, or trade a prescription drug for emergency medical reasons. Emergency medical reasons include transfers of prescription drugs by a retail pharmacy to another retail pharmacy to alleviate a temporary shortage when the gross dollar value of the transfers does not exceed five percent (5%) of the total prescription drug sales revenue of either the transferor or transferee pharmacy during any 12-consecutive-month period.
f. The sale, purchase, or trade of a prescription drug; an offer to sell, purchase, or trade a prescription drug; or the dispensing of a prescription drug pursuant to a prescription.
g. The distribution of drug samples by a representative of a manufacturer or a wholesale distributor.
h. The sale, purchase, or trade of blood and blood components intended for transfusion.
(11) Wholesale distributor. - A person who is engaged in the wholesale distribution of prescription drugs. The term includes manufacturers, repackers, own-label distributors, private-label distributors, jobbers, brokers, warehouses, independent wholesale drug traders, and retail pharmacies that conduct wholesale distributions. The term does not include a person who acquires prescription drugs commingled with other goods as part of a recovery operation and who disposes of such drugs under the supervision of the Department. A warehouse includes a warehouse of a manufacturer or wholesale distributor, a chain drug warehouse, and a wholesale drug warehouse.