Bill allowing Georgia pharmacists to prescribe HIV prevention drugs clears Georgia House

Georgia residents may soon be able to access HIV prevention medicine at their local pharmacy if a bipartisan push from state lawmakers to make the drugs faster and easier to access is successful. Senate Bill 195, which was introduced by Rome Republican Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, would allow pharmacists to both prescribe and administer medication, known […]

A bill would allow pharmacists to both prescribe and administer medication, known as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), that can help reduce the likelihood of acquiring HIV. Getty Images/Giacomo Abrusci

Georgia residents may soon be able to access HIV prevention medicine at their local pharmacy if a bipartisan push from state lawmakers to make the drugs faster and easier to access is successful.

Senate Bill 195, which was introduced by Rome Republican Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, would allow pharmacists to both prescribe and administer medication, known as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), that can help reduce the likelihood of acquiring HIV. It passed the House Thursday in a 155-7 vote, and now heads back to the Senate for further debate.

HIV is the virus that, left untreated, leads to AIDS. According to 2024 data from the nonpartisan health research and policy institute KFF, Georgia’s rate of HIV diagnoses was twice that of the national rate, and second only to the District of Columbia.

Should the bill be signed into law, patients seeking the medication will no longer need to worry about finding a primary care provider who can prescribe the medication, which can sometimes create barriers to access.

State Rep. Karla Drenner, an Avondale Estates Democrat, urged her House colleagues to pass the bill, arguing that it will help Georgians in both rural and urban areas gain access to lifesaving medication.

“Access and timing matter in rural communities with provider shortages and in urban communities where appointment demands exceed capacity,” Drenner said. “Pharmacies are often the most accessible health care point in both places, open longer hours, close to where people live and already trusted.”

The legislation was introduced last year, and passed the Senate unanimously during the 2025 legislative session. However, it did not make it to the House floor for a vote last year before lawmakers adjourned. 

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, PrEP is 99% effective at protecting people against sexual transmission of HIV and 74% effective at protecting people against transmission from shared needles or syringes when taken as prescribed. 

Several Southern states, including Arkansas, Louisiana and Virginia, already allow pharmacists to dispense the medication.

Jordan Khail, a clinical and administrative pharmacy lecturer at the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy, said the bill could particularly help rural residents of the state, who often struggle to find health care providers.

“There’s a lot of parts of Georgia that aren’t metro Atlanta, that are having really big spikes [in HIV],” he said. “We think from the epidemiology side that a lot of that has to do with lack of access to care.”

Pharmacies, he added, are comparatively much easier to reach for the average Georgian.

“There are pharmacists and pharmacies in every corner of Georgia,” he said. “It allows a direct path to access that might not exist without it.”

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