‘Go to Canada’: Trump Touted Americans’ Access to Cheaper Drugs. A New Rule Threatens It.

Days before it was to go into effect, the Trump administration pushed back a U.S. customs rule threatening the supply of vital prescription drugs imported by millions of Americans. Under the rule, Customs and Border Protection and the FDA will require coding on packages that makes it easier to know what’s in them. It is aimed at collecting tariffs on even low-value imports, and at catching illegal drugs like fentanyl. It will also add costs and complex paperwork to each order. Now the regulation, which was set to start Oct. 22, is delayed until Jan. 20. While it is illegal to import most FDA-approved prescription drugs, the U.S. has allowed Americans to import legal medications in small quantities for personal use since 2003. The FDA rarely inspects the parcels. “The information we have is there’s going to be a complete shutdown on Oct. 22,” Tim Smith, general manager of the Canadian International Pharmacy Association, said in an interview in early October. The 51 licensed retail pharmacies in his organization urged their hundreds of thousands of U.S. customers to file extra orders before Oct. 9 to be sure as many medications as possible arrived before the clampdown, Smith said. “T...