Existing law establishes a stewardship program, under which a manufacturer or distributor of covered drugs or sharps, or other entity defined to be covered by the bill, would be required to establish and implement, either on its own or as part of a group of covered entities through membership in a stewardship organization, a stewardship program for covered products, which is defined to include home-generated sharps waste. Existing law, for purposes of the stewardship program, defines “home-generated sharps waste” to mean hypodermic needles, pen needles, intravenous needles, lancets, and other devices that are used to penetrate the skin for the delivery of medications derived from a household, including a multifamily residence or household, subject to certain exclusions.

Existing law requires a pharmaceutical manufacturer that sells or distributes a medication in California that is usually intended to be self-injected at home through the use of a hypodermic needle, pen needle, intravenous needle, or any other similar device, to annually submit to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery and post on its internet website a plan that describes how the manufacturer supports the safe collection and proper disposal of the waste devices.

This bill would provide that a pharmaceutical manufacturer is not required to submit or post that annual plan if the devices it uses for the injection of that medication are covered products, including home-generated sharps waste, pursuant to the provisions establishing the above-mentioned stewardship program.