Section 24A. The board shall keep an official record of the names of all registered pharmacists and registered assistant pharmacists. All registrations of registered pharmacists and registered assistant pharmacists shall expire on December thirty-first of each even-numbered year. Any holder of a certificate of registration as a pharmacist or assistant pharmacist issued under section twenty-four and remaining uncancelled shall be entitled to have such certificate biennially renewed by registration by the board, upon the payment of a biennial renewal fee as determined annually by the commissioner of administration under the provision of section three B of chapter seven. On the first day of November of each even-numbered year the board shall send written notice to this effect to every registered pharmacist and every registered assistant pharmacist, and shall enclose with each notice a proper blank for such registration. If said blank properly filled out, together with said fee, shall not on or before the thirty-first day of December of such even-numbered year be received by said board from any pharmacist or assistant pharmacist so notified, said board shall strike from the register the name of such pharmacist or assistant pharmacist; provided, that at any time thereafter, any pharmacist or assistant pharmacist whose name shall have been so removed from the register may, upon submission to the board of proof satisfactory to it of his moral and physical fitness, have his name restored by it upon the payment to it of all accrued biennial renewal fees, together with a reinstatement fee determined under the aforementioned provision.

The board shall require each registered pharmacist seeking personal registration renewal to complete continuing education requirements as a condition precedent to such renewal. No registrant shall be eligible for renewal of a personal registration without completion of the requisite number of contact hours for such renewal. A registrant seeking renewal of a personal registration shall complete a minimum of 20 contact hours each calendar year of the 2 year renewal cycle. Any pharmacist licensed by the commonwealth overseeing or directly engaged in the practice of sterile compounding or practicing in a pharmacy licensed pursuant to section 39G or 39I shall devote at least 5 of the 20 contact hours to the area of sterile compounding. Any pharmacist licensed by the commonwealth overseeing or directly engaged in the practice of complex non-sterile compounding or practicing in a pharmacy licensed pursuant to section 39H shall devote at least 3 of the 20 contact hours to the area of complex non-sterile compounding.

The board shall, in addition to the requirements listed in this section, adopt further rules and regulations for a system of continuing education. The board shall accept all conferences and programs from providers approved by the Accreditation Council on Pharmacy Education meeting these requirements.

The board shall conduct audits of randomly selected renewed licenses. The board shall initiate the audit by sending selected licensees a request to provide documentation, which evidences the completion of the required contact hours. The name and date of licensees included in an audit shall be posted on the board's website. Licensees who are not in compliance with the contact hour requirements or fail to provide the requested documentation within 7 days of receiving a request shall be fined not more than $1,000.