DeSantis sues Biden administration over Canadian drug importation program

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday announced the state is suing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, claiming that the agency has delayed Florida’s attempts to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada.

The lawsuit, filed in Tampa federal court, alleges that the FDA has held up Florida’s application to begin getting medications to treat diabetes, Hepatitis C, HIV and other illnesses for almost two years.

“People use drugs in Canada — this isn’t Djibouti,” DeSantis said at a press conference in Lakeland, Fla. “This is a safe country.”

Florida was the first state in the country to apply for the Canadian drug importation program in November 2020. DeSantis had personally lobbied former President Donald Trump to give final authorization to the plan that year. It would save Florida residents an estimated $150 million in prescription drug costs.

President Joe Biden also issued an executive order in July 2021 that directed the FDA to implement the program, and staffers with the agency told health officials from various states, including Florida, that more details would be forthcoming. Officials with the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration said the FDA never provided further information.

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf also declined to provide a timeline for Florida’s application when he was asked about it a month later.

Simone Marstiller, secretary for the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, told the FDA in March that Florida had already waited 500 days for its application to be approved. She said on Wednesday that another 100 days have gone by without a word.

“This has been sitting on someone’s desk for 600 days,” Marstiller said. “This is not what government is supposed to do.”

The White House and the FDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

DeSantis said he had hoped Biden’s support would lead the FDA to finally approve the state’s application. But with little subsequent action from the federal agency, he said the state was compelled to sue.

“I didn't anticipate getting to this point where even the administration says they support it and then we just toil for months and months,” he said.

The Florida governor convinced the state Legislature to approve roughly $40 million to hire a Texas-based firm, LifeScience Logistics, to build the infrastructure required to run the program, which includes the large, empty Lakeland warehouse where DeSantis held Wednesday’s news conference.

“All of this stuff is ready to go,” DeSantis said. “It’s turnkey.”

The state’s Canadian prescription importation program is supposed to reap taxpayer savings by purchasing cheaper drugs for state-subsidized health care programs, including Medicaid. Marstiller said her agency is already packing more scrutiny into an upcoming multi-billion dollar contract procurement process with the health insurers who will provide coverage for most of the state’s 5.4 million Medicaid enrollees.

“We’re not going to pay these prices to the pharmaceutical companies,” Marstiller said. “We’re done.”