Jacobs Pharmacy Co. V. Case

A situation in which a pharmacy might be held liable for negligence is when a pharmacist knowingly dispenses a drug that is inferior or defective or when the physician has substituted a generic drug when the physician has prohibited the action in an expressive manner.
Also, the pharmacist might have asked the patient to authorize the substitution may inadvertently create an express warranty that the prescribed drug is "as good as" or "the same as" the one prescribed.
This is something that happened in Jacobs Pharmacy Co. v Gibson. In this case, the plaintiff presented a prescription for Zephiran Chloride Aqueous Solution 1:750 to a pharmacy technician. The technician informed the plaintiff she did not need the prescription since there was an over-the-counter (OTC) product that was the "same as" the prescription product.

The court found that when a pharmacy technician represents that a packaged product is "the same as what the plaintiff's prescription called for," liability will be found if the substituted product causes injury.
For instance, a patient could have come to take Paracetamol for her 2 month old baby having fever but because of it being out of stock, the pharmacist replaces it with Calpol. But Calpol is not meant to be used for kids under 3 months of age. In this case a pharmacist would be held liable for injuries caused by the substituted drug. The kid could be allergic to a particular chemical in the Calpol.
Also, the pharmacy would be held liable if it failed to warn the patient that the prescription drug was contra-indicated for people, like the patient, who was allergic to a particular compound. But this must mean that pharmacy had the actual knowledge of the allergy and a system in place to alert the pharmacist to that