Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – Courtesy: Shutterstock – Image by YES Market Media
The initiative has not yet started, almost a year after the Biden administration approved Florida to be the first state to import cheaper prescription medications from Canada, a long-standing objective of lawmakers from all parties, including President-elect Donald Trump.
The FDA approved his plan in January, a move that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis praised as a win over the pharmaceutical industry, which is against importation because it believes it will increase the supply of fake drugs.
There is currently no set timeline for the state of Florida to start importing medications, a health official with knowledge of the importation program told KFF Health News. The official requested anonymity because they lacked the authority to discuss the initiative in public.
Only a few months after the Trump administration offered states the opportunity to establish an importing program, Florida submitted an application in November 2020. During the Biden administration, DeSantis, a Republican, publicly bemoaned the speed of the federal approval process for years. In 2022, he sued the FDA for what he described as a “reckless delay.”
In a preelection interview released last month by AARP, the advocacy group for older Americans that favors allowing Americans to purchase medications from Canada, Trump praised his administration’s decision to transport medications across the border. During his second term, he pledged to “continue my efforts to protect Americans from unaffordable drug prices”
Since it is ultimately up to the states to take action, it is unclear if his second administration would or can do more to assist Florida and other states in establishing programs. The only other state with a pending importation plan with the FDA is Colorado.
For months, representatives of the DeSantis administration have declined to respond to inquiries regarding the program from KFF Health News. In October, Alecia Collins, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration’s deputy chief of staff, stated that officials were unavailable due to travel. She claimed to still have no answers in the middle of November.
According to Jeremy Redfern, DeSantis’ press secretary, he has been “slammed” since the first week of November and is unable to respond to inquiries.
Cherie Duvall-Jones, a spokesman for the FDA, stated that she was unable to respond to a question about whether Florida has provided the paperwork the agency needs before the state may begin importing medications. She directed any inquiries to the government.
Because of pricing limits imposed by the Canadian government, pharmaceutical companies usually sell their products for far less in Canada than in the US. However, federal law forbids, with very few exceptions, people from purchasing medications from outside the United States due to safety and effectiveness concerns.
Conservative politicians like DeSantis and liberal politicians like Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders have long advocated for the importation of less expensive prescription medications from Canada.
Congress established a law in 2000 that permitted states to import prescription medications from north of the border, but only after receiving approval from the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. It wasn’t until 2020 that Trump’s HHS secretary, Alex Azar, made the announcement.
Azar has served as chairman of the board at LifeScience Logistics since 2022. The company is situated in Dallas and Florida is paying it millions of dollars to establish its drug importation scheme, which includes storing its medications.
On November 13, Azar declined to comment to KFF Health News on drug importation, claiming he lacked the authority to do so.
Customers would not receive direct assistance at the pharmacy from Florida’s program. Instead, it aims to reduce expenses for the health and correctional departments, as well as the state Medicaid program.
Senior director Matthew Baxter of Ontario-based Methapharm Specialty Pharmaceuticals, which has an export agreement with LifeScience, will not confirm if Methapharm has shipped any medications across the border.
The Canadian government and pharmaceutical industry are against the importation of drugs from the United States. Drug manufacturers claim that importation would make it more likely that fake medications would end up on American drugstore shelves, and the Ottawa government has threatened to forbid the export of medications if Canadians would face shortages as a result.
The estimated savings for Florida would likewise be negligible. In its first year, DeSantis predicted the initiative would save state agencies as much as $180 million. Florida spends more than $30 billion a year on Medicaid.
Florida decided to try importing 14 medications from Canada for its governmental agencies, including ones for AIDS and cancer.
medicine importation is an apparently straightforward idea that appeals to the public, which is why DeSantis and others have resorted to it in reaction to growing medicine prices, according to Camm Epstein, a health policy expert in Saratoga Springs, New York. His words, “It riles up the crowd,” “Who doesn’t want to pay lower drug costs?”
However, the FDA’s numerous restrictions, such as identifying businesses to collaborate with — a Canadian exporter and a U.S. importer — and adhering to a procedure that guarantees the drugs are genuine, make it difficult to carry medications across the border, Epstein said.
“This was, at best, a boondoggle,” he stated.
Tens of millions of dollars have been spent by Florida to strengthen its drug importation scheme. LifeScience Logistics has already received $50 million from the state to establish a warehouse where the medications would be kept. When DeSantis sued the FDA in 2022, he brought up the expenses.
“Plaintiffs have paid their retained importer and distributor over $24 million thus far — and increasing at the rate of $1.2 million every month — even though not a single prescription pill has been imported, relabeled, or distributed, solely because of the FDA’s idleness,” the lawsuit claimed.
According to Epstein, operational difficulties could be the cause of Florida’s delay. “Predictably, even if they turned on the spigot there would be no flow, because Canada was not going to permit for the supply,” he stated.
At least nine states have enacted legislation permitting the importation of drugs from Canada, including Florida and Colorado. Colorado has yet to submit an application to the FDA for 2022. According to a report published by Colorado officials in December 2023, the state was unable to locate a pharmaceutical company that would sell it medications from Canada.
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Chris began his writing as a hobby while attending Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida. Today he and his wife live in the Orlando area with their three children and dog.
