New Hampshire allows supervised pharmacy technicians to give adult vaccines

Licensed health care professionals authorized to prescribe and administer medicines may dispense up to a 30-day supply of oral cancer medicine that is not a controlled drug. Patients must be under the provider’s care or supervision. The clinic must employ a full-time licensed pharmacist available to consult with the prescribing provider and patient. Dispensing must meet United States Pharmacopeia drug standards and relevant state and federal laws and rules. These dispensing provisions took effect September 8, 2026.

Certified pharmacy technicians may give adult vaccines under an on-site immunizing pharmacist’s supervision. Licensed advanced pharmacy technicians may process prescriptions remotely. The vaccine permission covers people age 18 or older and also includes pharmacists, pharmacy interns, and licensed advanced pharmacy technicians. Vaccines must be licensed by the United States Food and Drug Administration and ordered by an immunizing pharmacist. A federal vaccine advisory committee recommendation is not required. Remote work that requires pharmacist supervision must remain supervised electronically or through another remote method. These permissions took effect September 8, 2026.

Pharmacists provide care within their training and accepted care standards. The pharmacy board evaluates which tasks fall within pharmacy practice or may be assigned to supervised workers. Care must fit the pharmacist’s education, training, experience, and work setting. Pharmacists cannot change a prescribing clinician’s diagnosis. Prescribing medicines and ordering tests must follow state and federal law. Pharmacy workers must check whether a task is legal, fits their education and experience, and meets accepted care standards. Pharmacists working under care agreements with prescribers must know how to monitor treatment safely. This provision does not require extra credentials or pharmacy board approval. The board’s authority to set training standards under prescriber-approved instructions covers medicine administration outside these care agreements. These practice and oversight provisions took effect September 8, 2026.

The pharmacy board cannot require applicants to take exams on state pharmacy law. These provisions cover pharmacy licensing applicants, pharmacies, and controlled-drug labels. Advanced pharmacy technician exams must cover their allowed work duties. The board must suspend an exam requirement if it cannot verify that the exam meets its requirements. Pharmacists’ licenses must be readily retrievable at their pharmacy, and pharmacy permits must be posted. Controlled-drug labels must identify the pharmacy, prescriber, patient, and medicine and include use directions. The dispensing pharmacist’s name or initials are not required. Medicines filled through a central prescription-processing system must carry a code that allows their dispensing and related care to be traced. These exam, license, and label provisions took effect September 8, 2026.

The right-to-try provisions would cover patients with terminal illness or long-lasting, severely disabling illness and protect participating providers under specified conditions. The provisions also allow New Hampshire physicians to screen patients remotely across state lines and let affected patients and providers seek court orders against authorities that violate the law. Patients must have tried approved treatments or be unable to use them, be unable to join a relevant clinical trial, and give written informed consent. A parent or legal guardian may consent when needed. Doctors providing access cannot receive direct payment from the treatment’s manufacturer for doing so. Lawsuit protection requires agreement from the treating and consulting doctors about the illness and informed consent. It excludes willful or reckless misconduct and bad faith; the treatment-alternative condition is unclear. Personalized experimental treatments must be given by a New Hampshire licensed physician at a licensed institution operating under federal human-research protections. These provisions take effect on January 1, 2027, or when the fiscal committee chair certifies approval of a report on possible funding losses, whichever is later. Without approval, they do not take effect.