(a) Every prescription slip issued by a physician shall contain a clearly printed name and address of the issuing physician. In addition, every prescription written in the Virgin Islands shall have two boxes for the medical practitioner's notation. Under one box shall be the words “Dispense as written”. Under the second box shall be the words “Substitution allowed”. By checking one of the two boxes, the medical practitioner has indicated to the pharmacist his dispensing instruction.
(b) Every licensed Virgin Islands physician, when prescribing any drug or brand name, shall in each prescription, authorize by signing the box marked “Substitution allowed”; Provided, however, That if in the professional judgment of the prescribing physician the active ingredient or ingredients of any generic substitute may vary in the therapeutic effect upon the drug recipient, the physician shall sign the box marked “Dispense as written” on the prescription form.
(c) Pharmacists, when dispensing a prescription shall, unless requested otherwise by the purchaser in writing, substitute drugs containing the same active ingredients of the same strength, quantity, and dosage as that drug requested by the prescriber from the list of Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs unless ordered by the prescribing physician to dispense as written on the prescription form. The pharmacist shall pass on to the ultimate consumer the difference in the acquisition cost between the drug product prescribed and the drug product dispensed, exclusive of the pharmacist's professional fee. The pharmacist shall not charge a higher or differential professional fee for the generic drug product dispensed than that charged for the brand name product prescribed. When a substitution is made, the pharmacist shall indicate the product dispensed on the written prescription.