Final week, FDA approved the State of Florida to import prescription drugs from Canada. The value of branded prescription drugs in Canada is almost thrice the price of similar prescription drugs within the US, so this strategy may save the US cash.
Whereas there are some administrative points to work out on the US facet, the most important situation is the next: Canada doesn’t wish to promote. CBC experiences that Canadian Well being Minister Mark Holland acknowledged:
“There isn’t a means we are going to enable any jurisdiction, be it a state or one other overseas jurisdiction, to hazard the Canadian drug provide. That isn’t an applicable answer to no matter challenges they might be going through…
We’re going to do every little thing in our energy to ensure 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 anxious as a result of the US would quickly exhaust the Canadian drug provide. This situation arose in 2019 as nicely throughout the Trump administration and Canadians had an analogous response again then:
Canada doesn’t have a big sufficient provide of pharmaceuticals to satisfy U.S. demand, and importing medicines from Canada wouldn’t considerably decrease U.S. costs, Ottawa’s performing ambassador informed U.S. officers in latest conferences, in line with an announcement printed on Friday…[the statement] cited a 2019 research that projected that if 40% of U.S. prescriptions have been crammed 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 take into consideration that if States start to import medicine from Canada, pharmaceutical corporations could resolve to lift costs in Canada nearer to US ranges, because the US is the biggest marketplace for most prescription drugs.
Far more to come back.
