(a) As used in this Code section, the term:

(1) "Long-term care facility" or "facility" means an intermediate care home, skilled nursing home, or intermingled home subject to regulation as such by the Department of Community Health.

(2) "Unit dosage drug" means any dangerous drug regulated under Chapter 13 of Title 16 which is individually packaged to contain only one dosage of such drug and which includes on such packaging the brand or generic name, strength, lot number, and expiration date of such drug.

(b) Unit dosage drugs may be returned to the dispensing pharmacy for reuse. The department and the State Board of Pharmacy shall promulgate regulations which permit the reuse of prescribed but unused unit dosage drugs for a resident of a long-term care facility other than the resident for whom the drug was originally prescribed, but only when:

(1) The cost of those drugs has been paid for or reimbursed under this article; and

(2) The drugs are unused because the resident for whom the drugs were originally prescribed:

(A) Has died;

(B) Has had such resident's prescription changed so as no longer to require those drugs; or

(C) Otherwise no longer needs those drugs.

The consent of the resident for whom the unused drugs were originally prescribed shall not be required for such reuse of prescribed unit doses. Such reuse shall only be authorized by a resident of a long-term care facility for whom the specific dosage of that unused drug has been prescribed when payment or reimbursement for that drug for that resident is otherwise permitted under this article. Nothing in this Code section shall require a pharmaceutical manufacturer to provide a rebate based on the reuse of any unused unit dosage drug.