FDA clears Colorado to import prescription drugs from Canada
The Food and Drug Administration authorized Colorado to import certain prescription drugs from Canada , making it the second state to win approval for a wholesale importation program aimed at lowering drug costs. Florida was the first, cleared in 2024, but it has yet to actually import any drugs and received a six-month extension in May to launch.
State importation has drawn bipartisan support across administrations — the Trump administration backed it through regulation in 2020, and the Biden administration affirmed it by executive order in 2021 — as a route to cheaper medicines for residents. In practice, the programs have stalled. Canadian regulators and drugmakers have resisted, warning that supplying the much larger US market could threaten Canada’s own drug supply, and the logistics of approving specific products and channels are slow.
Colorado’s clearance is therefore a procedural milestone more than an immediate source of savings: it removes a federal barrier but leaves the harder questions of sourcing and Canadian cooperation unresolved.