Two Texas physicians have sued the state pharmacy and medical board in an effort to lift the ban that prevents them from dispensing medication directly to their patients, according to the Statesman.
Currently, 45 states allow physicians to dispense medications to their patients. However, in Texas, only physicians who work in rural areas more than 15 miles from a pharmacy are allowed to dispense the drugs.
According to the lawsuit, the law's language is too restrictive because only eight of the state's nearly 65,000 physicians are allowed to dispense medications.
The lawsuit argues that the ban only seeks to help the pharmaceutical industry.
"There is no reason to think that doctors in Texas are any less qualified than their peers in 45 other states to dispense medication, and doctors who work near pharmacies are just as qualified as their rural peers in Texas to provide medication to patients," the Institute of Justice, a nonprofit libertarian law firm that is bringing the suit, told the Statesman. "This ban isn’t about patient safety. It is about protecting the profits of pharmacies."