Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) says the Biden administration is intentionally blocking a plan that would provide Florida residents with more affordable prescription medications.
On Wednesday, DeSantis announced a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and accused the agency of deliberately stalling his plan to import safe, more affordable medications from Canada for more than 600 days.
“Florida has been ready to deliver cheaper prescription drugs to those that need them for nearly two years,” the Republican said at the press conference. “The lack of transparency by the Biden administration during the approval process, and failure to provide records on the importation proposal, is costing Floridians who are facing rising prices across the board due to inflation.”
The Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) submitted the groundbreaking plan to safely import cheaper drugs from Canada to the FDA nearly 21 months ago, now the final hurdle they are facing is approval from the federal government.
The prolonged delays have left DeSantis with no other option than to sue the Biden administration over its role in delaying the common-sense healthcare program. The lawsuit asks a federal judge to order the FDA to approve the application.
During the press conference, DeSantis accused Biden of essentially holding the prescription import plan hostage due to political differences.
“I’d hate to think that the Biden admin would not approve it just because it’s Florida, because they have issues with Florida politically … because this will benefit people … regardless of political persuasion,” he said.
If approved by the FDA, DeSantis’s plan is estimated to save the Sunshine State more than $150 million a year according to Attorney General Ashley Moody and Florida healthcare officials.
“Governor DeSantis and I are fighting to lower prescription drug costs, but Washington bureaucrats are blocking our efforts,” AG Moody said.
In July, DeSantis’s office filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain the status of the proposal but has still yet to receive any update.
Florida’s Canadian Prescription Drug Importation Program has already received bipartisan support from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (I).
“If we can import vegetables, poultry, fish, and every item that you can think of from other countries, then there is no reason that we cannot safely, with FDA approval, reimport medicine manufactured abroad at a far lower price than we pay in the U.S.,” the progressive senator told Insider.
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The reason that drugs are cheaper in Canada is that the Canadian government won’t allow pharmaceutical companies to recoup research and development costs in drug sales. This means that we are subsidizing Canada’s share of R&D costs. All the DeSantis plan will do is concentrate R&D costs to a smaller number of consumers.
If we want to bring drug costs down fairly, we cannot allow the sale of US developed drugs overseas unless the R&D costs are included. Another way would be to extend patent protection on pharmaceuticals, so that companies can spread R&D costs over a longer period.
Preventing pharmaceutical companies from recouping R&D costs is the best way to make sure no new drug development takes place. It costs $2 Billion and up to develop and test a new drug.
Good luck with your plan but apparently you don’t know the world market. Start with the EU tell them what the new price you want for drugs and they will tell you that you are not licensed to sell to any drug to a member country case closed. They set the price take it or leave it. That’s something that would save Medicare a fortune but by law are not allowed to negotiate. Then tell the third world countries that here comes a price increase which they cannot afford. You’ll end up with the same amount of money and they will ultimately get less drugs.
Go Gov Go