How FDA Ruling Could Unravel Big Pharma’s Stranglehold on US Drugs

At the start of January, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the state of Florida to import prescription drugs from Canada—meaning, for the first time, a state will be able to procure cheaper medications imported from outside the United States.

It was a change that advocates have wanted for decades, in the hope it would drive the high price of medicines in the American market—which has long been dominated by U.S. pharmaceutical companies—down for patients.

As of 2018, prescription prices in the U.S. were on average 256 percent more than in 32 comparable countries, and as of 2021 were more than three times the cost in Canada. The high price of American drugs has pushed many to acquire their own from Canadian pharmacies, while others who cannot afford them simply go without, risking worsening health conditions.

While there are early signs that Florida’s authorization may lead to an expansion of drug imports across the U.S., the approval given by the FDA is limited in its scope, expansion of the policy is likely to be slow, and it is also unlikely that U.S. pharma companies will cede their market share quietly.

But even though importation of foreign drugs could still face pressures from the Canadian government and lobbyists, experts who spoke to Newsweek said the FDA’s announcement could be the first chink in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry’s erstwhile unbroken hold on the domestic prescriptions market.