Development of a proposal for an endorsement for scheduled medicines for pharmacists

News and Updates

17 Sep 2025

The Pharmacy Board of Australia (the Board) has begun work to establish an endorsement for scheduled medicines for pharmacists, supporting a consistent, safe, and nationally coordinated approach to pharmacist prescribing.

Key points

The Pharmacy Board of Australia (the Board) has commenced work to establish an endorsement for scheduled medicines for pharmacists.
If approved by Health Ministers, this will enable pharmacists who have completed a prescribing qualification approved by the Board to have their registration endorsed by the Board as being qualified to administer, obtain, possess, prescribe, sell, supply and/or use scheduled medicines.
An endorsement in relation to scheduled medicines aims to standardise the qualifications required by pharmacists who prescribe scheduled medicines in accordance with authorisations determined by each state and territory, set out in local medicines and poisons legislation.

This approach will enhance public protection and facilitate workforce mobility — both core objectives of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, as in force in each state and territory (the National Law).

Establishing an endorsement has been requested by Health Ministers and is the next stage in the Board’s extensive work since 2018 to explore pharmacist prescribing arrangements that ensure public safety.

To support the development of the endorsement, the Board will:

establish an Expert Advisory Committee on Pharmacist Prescribing and work with Ahpra’s Scheduled Medicines Expert Committee throughout the development of its proposal
develop a registration standard informed by guidance published on the Ahpra website setting out information for National Boards about the process for, and content of, an application to the Ministerial Council for approval of endorsement for scheduled medicines
engage with a broad range of stakeholders who will be invited to attend a pharmacist prescribing forum
publish a consultation paper to gain feedback on the proposal from the public, profession, stakeholders and governments, before the proposal is submitted to Health Ministers for consideration.

The Board has already funded the Australian Pharmacy Council (APC) to develop Accreditation standards for pharmacist prescriber education programs, which have since been used to accredit a number of education programs that support pharmacist prescribing initiatives.

As part of the next phase of work, the Board is funding the APC to complete a review of these accreditation standards, to ensure that they remain suitable to support the implementation of an endorsement for scheduled medicines, if approved by Health Ministers.

The Board looks forward to engaging with all stakeholders and interested parties about this important work to support a safe and nationally coordinated approach to pharmacist prescribing.

Contact us

Ahpra Media Line: (03) 8708 9200 or [email protected]