The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new policy in January 2024 to allow Florida to import prescription drugs from suppliers in Canada, where drugs are often less expensive than in the U.S. While the move received bipartisan support, it was met with less favorable reactions from Canadian health providers and pharmaceutical companies. Florida’s plan to import drugs was signed into law in 2019 by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, but it required review and approval by the FDA, which stated that the state’s strategy demonstrates an ability to “significantly reduce the cost of covered products to the American…

Public health advocates came up just shy of their decade-long goal of banning the sale of menthol cigarettes in the U.S. this past fall. In October 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) submitted rules to ban the manufacturing and sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, but the office in charge of reviewing the rules has, so far, taken no action. Updating FDA rules is a long process, requiring multiple agency reviews, public comment periods and a development period that takes these findings into consideration. Still, many in favor of the ban voiced their disappointment that the rules…