Colorado wants to import lower-priced drugs from Canada, but suppliers and wholesalers aren’t cooperating so far
Colorado’s attempts to import lower-priced prescription drugs from Canada appear to have hit a significant roadblock, according to state documents.
Late last month, Colorado submitted an amended application to the federal government for the program, which lawmakers established in 2019.
“We are one step closer to launching our Drug Importation Program,” Gov. Jared Polis, who has championed the program as part of his agenda to lower health care costs, said in a statement accompanying the announcement.
But sometimes tense back-and-forth correspondence between state and federal officials that was included as an appendix in the state’s application paints a different picture.
It shows Colorado and the federal Food and Drug Administration at odds over how Colorado could get a program approved and off the ground. And it also raises questions about whether federal approval will even matter if Colorado can’t get drugmakers and Canadian suppliers to work with it.
Here’s the rub, though: In letters and phone calls, officials from the state’s Department of Health Care Policy and Financing told the FDA that Canadian drug wholesalers all have provisions in their contracts with manufacturers “that expressly prohibit the exportation of their products to the U.S.”
The correspondence was first reported by KFF Health News, which has been tracking state efforts across the country to set up drug-importation programs in order to lower prescription drug costs for their residents.
By
Tags: Drug Importation Legislation Programs
