Florida has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and one of its related agencies, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), after the state’s plan to import prescription drugs from Canada was halted by regulators.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican arsonist who has held the office since 2019, announced the lawsuit Wednesday. In 2019, the Republican-led legislature passed legislation allowing imports of prescription drugs from Canada — a move that would save Florida residents an estimated $150 million a year.
Because prescriptions are controlled substances, the plan had to be approved by the FDA. The lawsuit says the agency asked for minor clarifications to delay approval, claiming it was an attempt to protect drug companies.
Florida officials are asking for a federal court to force the FDA and HHS to make a decision on whether to accept the state’s import plan.
The high cost of prescription drugs in America has become one of the nation’s top political issues in recent years. Both Democrats and Republicans have campaigned for cutting costs, and figures like DeSantis, Joe Biden, and senators on the other side have all struggled to highlight the higher prices Americans are paying than their peers around the world.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (pictured) announced Wednesday that his state is suing the FDA to force the agency to make a decision regarding its 2019 law allowing the import of prescription drugs. Plans to import drugs must first be approved by the FDA
Prescription drug prices have become a hot political issue in the United States, and both Democrats and Republicans have taken it upon themselves to highlight solutions to bring prices down (stock photo).
“Florida has been ready to ship cheaper prescription drugs to those who need them for almost two years,” DeSantis said at a news conference Wednesday.
“The Biden administration’s lack of transparency during the approval process and failure to provide records of the import proposal is costing Floridians, who face rising prices due to inflation across the board.”
The landmark law would make Florida the first state to be able to import prescription drugs from another nation.
The hepatitis drug is said to be the most expensive in the US, with a prescription of 84 pills costing $30,000
Americans pay more than anyone else for prescription drugs, according to a new report, with a single prescription of a hepatitis drug costing an uninsured person nearly $30,000, according to a new report.
A report released this month by Nice Rx finds that Americans spend around $1,011 per person each year, more than 25 percent more than the closest comparable nation, with the cost of many medications having doubled in the past decade
The most expensive drugs included in the report were Harvoni, a hepatitis C drug made by pharmaceutical giant Gilead, for which the average prescription before insurance adjustments costs $29,238, and Stelara, a psoriasis drug developed by J&J, $19,607.
One report states that Harvoni costs $2 per pill to produce, for which there are usually around 84 in a single course, meaning the price has increased around 175x on average, according to the Nice Rx report becomes.
The drug whose price rose the most was Humulin, an insulin made by Eli Lilly, whose price has risen by a whopping 1,070 percent over the past decade — making it one of four diabetes drugs whose price has increased over the course of the year decade has at least doubled.
However, the FDA tightly regulates many of these drugs and has strict guidelines for their distribution.
Imported drugs from Canada must still meet the requirements set by the agency in order to be used in the United States.
A large majority of drugs used in the US under current FDA standards are already manufactured abroad.
The Florida is part of a bipartisan, national effort to lower the price of prescription drugs in the United States.
Insulin in particular has become a poster child for runaway drug prices in the US
President Joe Biden has been a supporter of a federal $35-a-month cap on insulin prices and during his State of the Union address earlier this year he pointed to the high prices Americans are facing.
“One in 10 Americans has diabetes,” Biden said before sharing the story of a Virginia teenager he met whose family was struggling to afford his insulin medications.
“Drug companies will still do very well [with a price cap]. And while we’re at it, let Medicare negotiate lower prescription drug prices like the VA is already doing.’
According to the Department of Health, Americans pay ten times more per insulin vial than residents of comparable developed nations.
The high prices have been blamed for many preventable deaths and for some Americans engaging in the dangerous practice of “insulin rationing,” in which a person takes smaller than necessary doses each day — or even skips a few days — in an effort to reduce it to do Make each bottle last longer.
“It’s just absurd – beyond absurd – that Americans with diabetes sometimes pay more than $600 just for a 40-day supply of insulin,” said Chuck Schumer, Senate Majority Leader, also a Democrat, earlier this year.
Some Republicans, like Louisiana’s John Kennedy, have also advocated price caps on insulin.
Both the red and blue states like Maine, New York, Utah and West Virginia have also passed insulin price caps in recent months.
However, many of these caps only apply to Americans with health insurance, as they pass the high cost of the drug on from the customer to the insurer.
Those who do not have health insurance – around 28 million people – still have to pay the costs out of their own pockets.
