The (Mankato, Minn.) Free Press on how prescription drug import efforts will push prices down:
After decades of exorbitantly high prescription drug prices that had some Americans choosing between their medicine and groceries, there appears to be a bipartisan coalition coming together to fight drug companies.
Florida, led by conservative Gov. Ron Desantis, recently pushed the federal government to authorize the state to buy cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and was approved to do so on Friday. Other states have also applied. Ex-president Donald Trump authorized the program during his administration and the Biden administration has carried it forward.
Florida sued the Biden administration to get this ruling, and the Biden FDA was unnecessarily dragging its feet on these requests.
The bipartisan coalition will be challenged to open up this free market as Big Pharma has sued to stop the program. They argue wrongly, as they have for decades, that drugs imported from Canada are not safe. This is balderdash. An unproven assertion at best, a complete lie at worst.
The democratic-led Congress also moved on prescription drugs when it passed the Inflation Reduction Act that called for government and Medicare for the first time ever to be able to negotiate with drug companies for prescription drugs. Already some drug costs have come down, despite the drug companies’ suit in federal court.
No Republican voted for the Inflation Reduction Act.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office predicts the prescription drug provisions of IRA will lower the deficit by $237 billion over 10 years. U.S. prices are sometimes 10-times higher than other developed countries, according to a report by Kaiser Family Foundation Health News.
Pharmaceutical manufacturers also say the cuts to their revenues will prevent them from getting the latest, lifesaving drugs to market and crimp their ability to do expensive research.
But some industry players don’t seem that concerned about money.
In August 22 Pfizer spent $5.4 billion to buy Global Blood Therapeutics and $11.6 billion to buy Biohaven in May of 2022. The company purchased Arena Pharmaceuticals for $6.7 billion in December of 2021.
The company’s chief business and innovation officer, Aamir Malik, said the company is “leaving very few stones unturned” in looking for expansion opportunities in communications to investors.
The prescription drug plan for state importation still must overcome some hurdles. Some pharmaceutical companies make deals with Canadian wholesalers, and drug shipping companies that prohibit importation to the U.S. Drugmakers are likely to sue Florida. The FDA requires a myriad of hoops to jump through before importation can take place.
And Canada has already taken steps to prohibit imports to the U.S. for some drugs that are in short supply.
It shouldn’t be up to American consumers to get fair prices for prescription drugs. That’s what its representatives in Congress should be doing. It’s taken far too long for even these incremental steps. And the Biden administration needs to let the FDA know that it should act with urgency on these state requests.
Americans overwhelmingly favor prescription drug imports. So that should make it easy for these bipartisan coalitions to move the needle on lowering prescription drug prices.