The Daily Dish
January 9, 2024
The Empty Promise – Importing Canadian Drugs
This Washington Post headline was eye-catching – FDA to allow Florida to import prescription drugs from Canada – and its lede striking: “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a Florida program aimed at allowing the state to import certain prescription drugs from Canada at a lower cost — a major policy shift and part of a broader push to bring down the price of medications.” As it turns out, there is little chance that this will amount to more than hype and headlines.
To begin, the FDA did not simply say that any Floridian can go Canuck in the drug market. Instead, the FDA granted approval to the implementation plan of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (FAHCA). In its press release, the FAHCA announced: “The state will begin by providing prescription drugs in a small number of drug classes which will include maintenance medications to help individuals who have chronic health conditions such as HIV/AIDS, mental illness, prostate cancer, and urea cycle disorder. These drugs will be for individuals who are under the care of the Agency for Persons with Disabilities, Department of Children and Families, Department of Corrections, and Department of Health. The program will then expand to include providing imported prescription drugs for Medicaid members across the state.”
That’s right. A very limited number of Floridians will have access to these drugs, ultimately extending to Medicaid beneficiaries – currently about 5 million of the 22.6 million residents of the state. And this will take a lot of time. Florida has to implement visual inspections and laboratory testing to detect any potential counterfeit drugs and preserve the integrity of the U.S. prescription drug supply; a system to ensure a secure prescription drug supply chain consistent with federal law, and a plan that will protect the safety of Floridians in the event that imported prescription drugs are recalled.
But even these are details. The real reason that little will come to fruition is that Canada, which has only roughly twice as many people as Florida, has already taken step to ensure that its drugs stay north of the border. Wholesalers will not be permitted to sell the FAHCA program.
The promise of importation (or reimportation) has been empty for a long time. As with the simplistic promise of “negotiations” in the Inflation Reduction Act, beware politicians – especially presidential candidates – bearing simple solutions to devilishly complicated problems.
Fact of the Day
Across all rulemakings this past week, agencies published $1.1 billion in total costs and added 2.1 million annual paperwork burden hours.
