Desantis’ Canadian Drug Import Plan In Florida Goes From Campaign Trail To Tough Realities

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — When Gov. Ron DeSantis ran for president in 2024, he touted his plan for Florida to become the first state in the country to import less expensive prescription drugs from Canada into the U.S.

Yet as his time in office dwindles, that plan has been all but scuttled — leaving one contractor with more than $82 million in taxpayer money and no results to show for it.

Florida remains the only state in the country the FDA has authorized to import prescription drugs. But the state’s effort has stalled in part because it failed to win over the Canadian drug industry, which has consistently warned the Canadian government that the U.S. program jeopardized the country’s drug supply.

Florida’s Canadian drug program was expected to save the state close to $180 million by taking advantage of the country’s pricing structure for prescription drugs. And the governor held up the program as a model for other states to follow.

The Food and Drug Administration granted Florida final authorization to import Canadian prescription drugs more than two years ago with a promise from the state that it would begin importing drugs in a matter of months. But AHCA subsequently failed to launch its program, amid years of fierce headwinds brought by the Canadian market. The FDA sent the state a letter in June giving Florida until November to make progress.

According to the letter, the FDA assumed the state has either not yet imported drugs, or it started the program without requesting permission.

“We recommend that you stay up to date on relevant FDA requirements,” said the letter to the state, which the FDA gave to POLITICO when asked if Florida imported any drugs from Canada.

DeSantis made the drug importation program a cornerstone of his failed bid for president in 2024 as a way to lower skyrocketing prescription drugs costs. The state went so far as to open a warehouse for the program in Lakeland. The state-purchased facility and core operations of the drug import program was overseen by the Texas-based LifeScience Logistics under two contracts worth $82.3 million in state funds.

The DeSantis administration is still pushing forward with the program despite the lack of results. DeSantis spokesperson Molly Best said in an email that the state’s vendor is still in negotiations with Canadian manufacturers and distribution partners. A meeting scheduled by the FDA for November was canceled due to the federal government shutdown last year, and it was rescheduled for March. Until then, the FDA has continued the state’s authorization to operate the program until May.

“Florida’s vendor has been working diligently to negotiate with Canadian manufacturers and distribution partners to purchase and import eligible prescription drugs into the U.S.,” Best said.

But state financial records show the Lakeland facility has since been repurposed to become a storage facility for the state Division of Emergency Management, housing emergency equipment during hurricane season. The DEM facility will also be operated by LifeScience Logistics under a new contract worth $116 million, state records show.

“We supported the State of Florida in its response to Hurricane Idalia in our Lakeland facility that is currently supporting the Canada Prescription Drug Importation Program,” LifeScience wrote in the contract, which was signed by the state in August.

For the past six years, the state Legislature has agreed to fund LifeScience to run the program with an annual payment of $15 million. House Health Care Budget Chair Alex Andrade (R-Pensacola) said he had inquired about the spending for years but received no answers from AHCA or the governor’s office. AHCA has since requested another $4 million for the program in next year’s state budget, which Andrade said will be up for discussion.

“I’ve been trying to ask questions about the program for years,” Andrade said before saying he did not know if the Legislature erred in approving $82 million for LifeScience to run the failed importation program.

“It is a lot of money — I don’t know,” Andrade said.

AHCA did not respond to questions about the status of the drug importation program.

The Florida House has moved to another plan to bring down prescription drug prices. The proposal, HB 697, which is backed by House Speaker Daniel Perez (R-Miami), would direct the state to adopt cheaper prescription drug price schedules based on those used in other countries. Perez said the bill would complement, rather than replace, the Canadian Drug Importation Program, which the Legislature also approved years ago at the governor’s request.

“Our sole goal is to try and bring down rising drug prices,” Perez said. “We have some of the most expensive drug prices in the nation.”

Florida’s drug import plan is governed by the federal Section 804 Importation Program, which was put into law by Congress in 2003 despite concerns from Canadian drug officials who feared it would deplete the country’s drug supply. There also were concerns from U.S. health officials about the program failing to consider the different quality standards each country has set in place for drugs, and how that difference could taint America’s drug supply.

Interest in the U.S. to import drugs from other countries returned in 2019 as states grappled with rising prescription drug costs and tightening controls on pharmacy benefit managers, which were created to make drugs cheaper but fell under scrutiny for pocketing drug rebates meant for consumers. DeSantis successfully lobbied President Donald Trump to begin rolling out the program at the end of his first White House term in late 2020, and Florida submitted its importation plan to be reviewed by the FDA a few weeks afterward.

One obstacle Florida and at least eight other states have faced from the beginning is the lack of participation from the Canadian government and the pharmaceutical industry. Despite that, Florida has spent by far the most, and it has made the least amount of progress, said Shabbir J. Safdar, executive director of the Washington-based Partnership for Safe Medicines.

“They spent more than 80 million dollars, and what do they have to show for it?” Safdar said. “It was clear Canada didn’t want anything to do with the program.”

The early efforts by DeSantis and other governors to launch the drug importation program were met with heavy opposition from dozens of health groups in Canada that wrote letters expressing concerns with the country’s leaders.

Dani Peters, a consultant for the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies in Canada, said authorities imposed restrictions intended to block drug exports.

“Canada’s unwillingness to participate must have played a factor,” Peters said. “Health Canada instituted a regulation intended to block exports that would contribute to a drug shortage.”

Another state vying to import drugs is Colorado, where officials there are struggling to find Canadian drug suppliers that are willing to do business. In a Colorado legislative report published last year, state officials there wrote that they were not clear on when the program would go live.

“I am extremely grateful to the state of Florida for actually proving that drug importation programs are financially unfeasible,” Safdar said. “This experiment will go down to show that even after spending $80 million you can’t solve your problems by importing another country’s medicine supply.”