Nolla Health says Utah has cleared its AI to issue first prescriptions for acne

Nolla Health said on 5 October that it has received regulatory approval in Utah for what it calls the first AI system in the United States authorised to issue initial prescriptions. The company, in a press release, said it worked with the Utah Office of Artificial Intelligence and that the Utah Medical Board provided oversight. Bloomberg reported the same news under a headline saying the AI can prescribe acne drugs without doctors.

According to the company, the system can only choose from a short list of pre-approved topical acne treatments inside structured clinical protocols, and cannot write open-ended prescriptions. Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Zaid Fadul is quoted in the release as saying: "The AI can't improvise. It can only choose from a short list of physician-approved topical treatments."

Nolla describes three stages of oversight. For the first 100 patients a physician reviews and approves every AI prescription before it is delivered. For the first 500 patients the AI issues prescriptions on its own while a physician reviews them retroactively each day. After that, the company says, a physician reviews a sample of prescriptions each week.

The service runs through the Nolla Derm app and is open to Utah residents aged 18 and over, at $4.99 a month during the pilot, the company says. It also says licensed clinicians agreed with the AI's recommendations in more than 96 percent of real-world cases. That figure is Nolla's own, and the release does not say how large the sample was or who checked it.