DeSantis: Nancy Pelosi is an Example of the Need for Term Limits

LAKELAND (FLV) – Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a new lawsuit the state is filing against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) because of the length of time – nearly 2 years – it has taken them to still have not yet respond to a plan to lower drug prices for Floridians.

DeSantis slammed the U.S. federal government – particularly Congress – for the price of drugs increasing under their watch for years.

“You do need to be able to do well in order to research and develop and all that stuff… I think that can be done in a way that’s not putting almost the entire burden of that on American consumers and patients and allowing other folks to do less,” he said. “I hope there will be an interest in looking at this in the Congress takes in.”

“They’re not gonna do anything with the current lot of ’em that are in there. You wonder, drug prices have gone up for so long, you know, [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi’s been in office for 30-some years and it just keeps going up. You know, she’s a great example of why we need term limits for members of Congress.”

Florida then sent their detailed plan up to Washington during the Trump Administration for FDA approval in 2020. DeSantis said Florida was the first state to send this plan.

“After 630 days, we still sit here waiting for an answer. It’s our view that we’ve waited long enough,” DeSantis said. “We have a right to know what the FDA has been doing for the last 2 years. Are they putting politics over patients?”

“What we are paying right now in the U.S. pill to pill compared to Canada was 100% more basically,” said Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Simone Marstiller.

The governor believes the FDA has violated federal law by “unlawfully” withholding and “unreasonably” delaying the approval of Florida’s program.

The lawsuit also includes claims that the FDA has not responded to requests under the Freedom of Information Act for records to help increase transparency on their approval process.

DeSantis noted how President Biden signed an executive order in the summer of 2021 that aims to promote competition to lower drug costs.