The Commissioner of Public Health shall establish by rule continuing education requirements as a condition for an initial or a renewal pharmaceutical representative license. All pharmaceutical representatives shall complete a minimum of five hours of continuing professional education prior to renewing their license. The continuing professional education may include training in the areas of ethics, pharmacology, laws and regulations applicable to pharmaceutical marketing, and other areas that the Commissioner of Public Health may designate by rule. Upon request, pharmaceutical representatives shall provide proof of completion of the continuing professional education requirements to the Commissioner of Public Health or their designee.

Allowed course content includes:

• General medical and pharmaceutical terminology and abbreviations
• Food and Drug Administration laws and regulations pertaining to drug marketing, labeling, and clinical trials
• Comparative cost effectiveness of pharmacological treatments
• Therapeutic drug classes and categories
• Professional ethics
• Properties and actions of drugs and drug delivery mechanisms
• Etiologies, characteristics and therapeutics of disease states
• Pharmacology
• Anatomical and physiological effect of pharmaceuticals
• Comparative effectiveness of pharmacological treatments
• How to read and analyze peer-reviewed literature on pharmacological treatments
• Safe prescribing practices to prevent abuse

For New Educational Providers:

If your organization is interested in providing continuing education coursework that can be used toward the Pharmaceutical Representative License requirement CDPH accepts applications on an ongoing basis and will update the course listings twice a year during the months of April and October.

Eligible organizations should use our continuing education application portal. For further instructions see the user manual.

Once a course is submitted via the online application, CDPH will send an initial email confirming our receipt of the course. If the application is determined to be complete, we will review the course content and support documents. After each course is reviewed, CDPH will send a final email notice regarding the status of each Education application.

Returning Educational Providers:

Please submit any updates to your previously approved course using our continuing education application portal.