Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Section 13 will provide an additional protection to those listed in section 5. Section 13 states:

When a branded interchangeable medicinal product is prescribed for a patient and the prescriber [the doctor] is satisfied that the medicinal product should, for clinical reasons, be exempted from substitution in accordance with Chapter 2, the prescriber shall write, legibly and by hand, “do not substitute” on the prescription beside the name of the medicinal product.

In such cases, the pharmacist must dispense what is written on the prescription and is not permitted to substitute with any product in the same group of interchangeable products. This section offers additional comfort to the robust test that has to be adhered to in the provisions laid down in section 5.