The Food and Drug Administration has cleared the way for Colorado to import prescription drugs from Canada, a step Governor Jared Polis hopes will help residents save money. Polis argued that patients in the state are paying far too much for their medicine, saying Americans and Coloradans are tired of being ripped off and pay two or three times as much for the exact same prescription drug available in Canada, England and France.
According to the governor, the FDA approval is only the first step. He said the state can now begin the work of actually securing roughly 20 drugs, while cautioning that not all of them will necessarily be available. Importation would happen when there is an extra supply in Canada, and Polis said he is optimistic the state will be able to bring at least a number of those medications in and start lowering costs for residents.
With the approval in hand, officials now have to get the supply chain going, work with a new preferred distributor and test the drugs before they reach patients. The list of medications, as described, includes blood thinners and treatments for diabetes, as well as the high-demand drug Ozempic.
On the potential financial impact, the governor predicted savings in the range of 30 to 70 percent, amounting to as much as 46 million dollars over three years. He said those savings would be reflected in reduced premiums and also in lower out-of-pocket costs, depending on a person's individual policy.
The scale of the problem was underscored by Kai Davis, a pharmacist at Harris Pharmacy in Rocky Ford, who said he regularly sees patients who cannot afford their medicine. He described people facing bills that run into the thousands of dollars a month, asking who could realistically afford that.
Davis said that while he recognizes the problem, the program faces some potential roadblocks ahead, noting that Florida has received similar approval but is not really importing drugs yet either. He added that his pharmacy only dispenses a few of the drugs on the list and that some of the others are extremely expensive, saying a serious discount on those would make a meaningful difference, though people who are not on them are unlikely to notice the change.
Polis framed the initiative as a workaround for people who are struggling to pay for prescription drugs. At the same time, he said a better solution would be for drug companies and the federal government to figure out ways to bring down drug prices more broadly, rather than relying on individual states to seek out cheaper supplies abroad.