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Opinion: FDA calls states’ bluffs on drug importation

Given the approach FDA is proposing on state-sponsored drug importation, it's a long shot that states will see significant savings, or even enough to justify the cost of setting up…

For decades, critics of the U.S. drug pricing system have advocated importing drugs from Canada as a convenient shortcut to lower prices. The Food and Drug Administration’s recent release of a proposed regulation to create a process for approving state-sponsored importation plans is one step closer to that goal. A closer look shows that it’s actually a false step.

Career FDA staff, supported by previous FDA commissioners and Health and Human Services secretaries, have that there is no way to open a drug import channel into the U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain without violating the authorizing Canadian drug imports that required the FDA to certify that

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