Final week, FDA licensed the State of Florida to import prescribed drugs from Canada. The worth of branded prescribed drugs in Canada is practically 3 times the price of equivalent prescribed drugs within the US, so this strategy might save the US cash.

Whereas there are some administrative points to work out on the US facet, the largest difficulty is the next: Canada doesn’t need to promote. CBC studies that Canadian Well being Minister Mark Holland acknowledged:

“There isn’t a manner we are going to enable any jurisdiction, be it a state or one other international jurisdiction, to hazard the Canadian drug provide. That isn’t an acceptable resolution to no matter challenges they could be going through…
We’re going to do all the things in our energy to guarantee that one other nation can’t be given the flexibility to pillage our well being system for its personal profit.”

Canadian Well being Minister Mark Holland

Canada is worried as a result of the US would quickly exhaust the Canadian drug provide. This difficulty arose in 2019 as properly in the course of the Trump administration and Canadians had an identical response again then:

Canada doesn’t have a big sufficient provide of pharmaceuticals to fulfill U.S. demand, and importing medicines from Canada wouldn’t considerably decrease U.S. costs, Ottawa’s performing ambassador instructed U.S. officers in current conferences, in line with an announcement printed on Friday…[the statement] cited a 2019 examine that projected that if 40% of U.S. prescriptions have been stuffed from Canada, the Canadian drug provide would run out in 118 days…the U.S. state of Florida spends extra on pharmaceuticals than all of Canada.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-health-supplies/canadian-ambassador-says-drug-imports-would-not-lower-u-s-prices-idUSKBN1XB55E/

FDA could not have in mind that if States start to import medication from Canada, pharmaceutical corporations could resolve to lift costs in Canada nearer to US ranges, because the US is the most important marketplace for most prescribed drugs.

Far more to come back.