DENVER — Colorado has won federal approval to import lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada, a move Gov. Jared Polis says could save residents as much as 60% on certain medications.
“This is a big step in the fight to push back against big pharma and bring lower-cost prescription drugs to Coloradans,” Polis told Denver7's Jaclyn Allen in an interview Monday. “It ain’t over yet, but it’s a big step.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration signed off on Colorado’s application after years of back-and-forth between the state and federal officials.
Polis said the push began with legislation he signed in 2019 authorizing the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to pursue importation.
The state then submitted its plan to the FDA in 2022 and made multiple revisions over several years in response to the agency’s feedback.
Colorado’s plan identifies 20 specific drugs manufactured by 10 companies, including widely known medications such as Ozempic and Eliquis, that could be imported at lower cost.
State officials estimate savings of 20% to 60% per prescription, totaling roughly $46 million in reduced insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs over three years.
Now that the FDA has greenlit the plan, Polis said the focus shifts to securing supply and establishing a distribution chain.
“I hope we can do it within a year,” he said. “It all depends on a number of things. We now need to find the distributor that can source the product. They’re not all guaranteed to be sourced, right? Canada will not sell us a drug that they have a shortage of. So there are a lot of factors that go into it.”
Colorado is only the second state to receive such approval, after Florida, which has yet to import any prescription drugs.
“We learned a lot from Florida’s proposal, which is approved but has never actually worked yet,” Polis said. “We have a number of ideas. We have a good preferred distributor in there. I’m hopeful that Colorado will be the very first to be able to actually bring in any prescription drugs and pass the savings along to Coloradans.”
While the current approval covers only Canadian imports, Polis said he’d like to expand those efforts.
“I frankly would love to expand this to other countries,” he said. “We should be able to bring in prescription drugs from France, from England—even if it means sticking another label on them, and deliver cost savings to people.”
The state will also test every batch before it reaches patients, a safeguard Polis said was required as part of the FDA’s approval process, and the cost of that testing is already included in the projected savings.
Although supporters see the program as a step toward more affordable healthcare, Polis said it also serves as a reminder of the larger problem.
“It’s insulting and outrageous that Americans are paying 50% more for the exact same prescription drugs anywhere in this country,” he said. “Until they fix it in Washington. We’re going to do what we can here in Colorado.”
