Protect Medicine
Flavoring for Kids

Support AB 782

It is no secret that children do not enjoy taking medication. Parents plead, struggle, and even force-feed their children just to swallow the bad-tasting medicines they desperately need.

To lessen this challenge, pharmacists in California have been able to help parents and children skip the medication-time meltdown by adding flavoring to prescription medicines to help “make the medicine go down.”

Medication Flavoring is Critical
for California Families

0 Million

6 Million

Children

under the age of 11 live in California —
these children typically take liquid
medications when they are sick

0 K-

0 K

300 K- 500K

Medications

are flavored every year in California's
pharmacies, without a single reported
incident of harm over the past 20 years

0 +

3000+

CA Pharmacies

currently offer medication
flavoring to families and customers

Flavored
Medication
is at Risk

The California Board of Pharmacy is considering a proposal that would inhibit the state’s more than 5,000 pharmacies from flavoring medication for children, a practice that has been in place for years without any downside or ill effect. To keep flavoring for children’s medications widely available, the California Legislature has introduced Assembly Bill 782 so that most pharmacies in California remain able to offer flavoring to their customers.

Without AB 782, parents in California, who rely on flavoring now, will be forced to resort to home-cooked methods to get the medicine down or, what’s even more likely, kids won’t take their medicine at all. That would be disastrous for children’s health.

Take Action

Please voice your support for AB 782 by submitting the following letter, which will automatically be sent to your respective legislator based on your address. (Your personal information will not be used for any other purpose).

Make your voice heard!

Has your family benefitted from medicine flavoring? If so, we’d love to hear your story. Please complete the form below so we can show the California Board of Pharmacy why they must protect medication flavoring. Your experience could make all the difference for the families of California!

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Make your voice heard.

Dear Honorable:

As one of the millions of Californians who care about children’s health, I am writing to express my strong support for Assembly Bill 782 (McKinnor) because it will ensure that pharmacists will continue to have the ability to flavor medication for children.

AB 782 will prevent the California Board of Pharmacy from adopting a new and unnecessary position that would essentially eliminate access to flavored medications for bureaucratic and unnecessary reasons.

If that were to happen, it will be more difficult – if not impossible – for parents to get their kids to take important medications because children are more apt to take medicine that has been flavored.

Pediatricians, parents, and pharmacists all agree that eliminating flavoring would be disastrous for California children. It also runs counter to the Governor’s commitment to improve and expand access to healthcare.

There is no public health or other justification for changing the current standards, which for a decade have allowed neighborhood pharmacies to flavor medication.

For more than 20 years, millions of children’s medications have been flavored in California’s pharmacies with no reported adverse events or incidents of harm.

For all these reasons, I am respectfully asking you tor support for AB 782.  I appreciate your consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

Name*

Address*

Phone*

Email*

What Experts are saying about
flavored medicine

Without this exemption, California’s pharmacies will likely begin phasing out their flavoring services to avoid unnecessary, time-consuming and expensive regulations. This will have an effect on our business and, more importantly, the health and wellbeing of our youngest patients.”

Let’s face it – medicine can only be effective if it gets into the system. For parents and children, bubblegum, strawberry, and other flavorings have been a godsend, especially now . . . For something that hasn’t posed a risk, why do we now need more unnecessary regulations that will create additional burdens for your children’s health?

Children who were offered a choice between two different flavored medications for a sore throat were significantly more likely to comply with the medication regimen than those who were given unflavored medication.

Children preferred the taste of strawberry-flavored medication over unflavored medication for the treatment of acute pain.

The use of flavored medication improved medication adherence among children with asthma.

Protect Medicine Flavoring for Kids