Canada already supplies the US with hockey stars and imaginary girlfriends, and it might soon add its famously cheaper prescription drugs to the list. Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Florida’s request to import bargain meds from the country.

It’s the first state to get permission from the agency to bring in meds from Canada under a law Congress passed 20 years ago to help Americans pay less for drugs. Florida officials say ordering cheaper drugs for conditions like HIV and diabetes from Canadian wholesalers will save Medicaid and other state programs $150 million over the first year.

Will this go mainstream?

The FDA’s go-ahead to Florida establishes an understanding that foreign suppliers can safely fill Americans’ pill bottles and paves the way for other states to get similar approvals.

• Eight states besides Florida have laws that will allow them to import drugs if the FDA OKs it. And some, like Colorado, have already applied for approval, per the New York Times.
• To get signoff, a state has to prove that importing the medications would actually lower consumer prices and that the drugs adhere to the FDA’s safety standards.

But it’s not a done deal: Pharma lobbyists will likely challenge the FDA’s Florida decision in court, and some producers already bar Canadian companies from selling their products across the border.

There’s no magic pill

Experts say the high drug costs in the US are ultimately driven by the patent protections that allow pharma companies to maintain a prolonged monopoly on drug production. The Inflation Reduction Act, which enables the government to haggle with pharmaceutical manufacturers over prices for some drugs, does much more to lower costs than imports will, University of Michigan Law School expert Nicholas Bagley told the New York Times. He called Florida’s plan “political theater.”

Other commentators point out that Canada’s pharma market is too small to meet all Americans’ needs. The country is already making moves to restrict exports of drugs that are scarce.

Cheap drugs aren’t always a good thing…industry experts told Axios that lower drug prices sometimes reduce the incentive for manufacturers to produce them, creating shortages.—SK

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SCOTUS to wade into the 2024 presidential election. Yesterday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Donald Trump’s challenge to a Colorado ruling barring him from the state’s primary ballot. The case raises a novel legal question of whether the 14th Amendment’s clause banning people who “engaged in insurrection” from holding office applies to Trump—and inserts the high court into the middle of a presidential election for the first time since it decided Bush v. Gore in 2000. The case will be considered on an expedited schedule, with oral arguments on Feb. 8.

The NRA’s longtime chief is stepping down. Wayne LaPierre, who has led the National Rifle Association since 1991 and turned it into a lobbying force against gun restrictions, said yesterday he will resign at the end of the month. LaPierre, 74, cited health reasons for his decision to leave the role, but the announcement comes just before a trial, set to begin on Monday, in a civil case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James accusing him and other NRA executives of using the nonprofit’s money for themselves.

NY AG wants Donald Trump fined $370 million. LaPierre isn’t the only icon of the right James is coming for: Yesterday, she asked the judge overseeing her civil fraud case against Donald Trump to order a $370 million fine and to ban the former president from New York’s real estate industry for life. Her court filing also asked for a five-year ban from the industry for his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. The judge already ruled that Trump was liable for fraud for inflating the value of his properties (which Trump is appealing), but the two sides are scheduled to make their closing arguments for what the penalty should be next week. Trump’s lawyers, meanwhile, argued in their own filing that James has not proven her case and there should be no penalty.

Whether it’s an insurance company busting out evil Kermit or AMC flatlining, all memes must fall. The movie theater chain’s stock, once the talk of r/WallStreetBets, hit its lowest point ever yesterday ($5.17) after a five-day losing streak.

The former meme stock hype recipient is now just…a flailing company. In 2021, at the height of meme stock mania, AMC’s stock jumped to $339.05 a share. But it’s been sliding down like it’s on a greased-up Slip ’N Slide for a while now. A quick summary of AMC’s 2023:

• To try and pay off some debt (and keep the company out of bankruptcy), AMC completed a 10:1 reverse stock split in August, consolidating every ten shares that investors already had into one, and converted its “APE” preferred shares into regular old AMC stock.
• Since those moves, its stock price has plummeted more than 80%. And short sellers have reaped the benefits.

The summer’s blockbusters weren’t enough. Hits like Barbenheimer and Taylor Swift’s concert movie pushed box-office revenue past $9 billion last year. But they only provided a brief boost for AMC.

What’s next? CEO Adam Aron said the company is “still innovating” and already proved the haters wrong by surviving 2023.—MM

The NFL regular season wraps up tomorrow, and at least one team is very much looking forward to it being over: the last-place Carolina Panthers. They’re about to log their sixth straight losing season under billionaire owner David Tepper—and Panthers fans may hate him even more than they hate themselves.

Thousands of people have signed a petition calling for the hedge fund manager to sell the Panthers. It was created after Tepper threw a drink at a Jaguars fan last Sunday, earning him a $300,000 league fine, which accounts for less than 1% of 1% of his ~$21 billion net worth, according to ESPN.

He’s not used to losing. Tepper’s hedge fund, Appaloosa Management, made $2 billion by snatching up tech stocks including Nvidia, Microsoft, and Uber last year, according to Bloomberg. And though the Panthers have stunk it up on the field, they’ve thrived as a financial asset: Sportico estimates the franchise is worth nearly twice as much now as when Tepper bought it for $2.3 billion in 2018.

Most sports teams are skyrocketing in value. Billionaires and private equity firms are increasingly turning to sports franchises as a quickly appreciating asset class. For instance, hedge fund Point72’s founder Steve Cohen bought the New York Mets baseball team in 2020 (though the early returns on his ownership are mixed, at best). Now, Citadel founder Ken Griffin is reportedly considering buying part of the Miami Dolphins.—ML

Stat: You’ll have to find somewhere besides the Great Lakes to perfect your double salchow. Warm weather this winter has led to the least ice cover the North American Great Lakes have seen in 50 years. At this point in the year, the lakes are on average 10.6% covered with ice, but as of Thursday, it was just 0.43%, per the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. The decline in ice on the freshwater lakes is being watched closely for its connection to climate change, especially since it could trigger extreme weather nearby, according to the Financial Times.

Quote: “Much of the clip is somewhat amusing.”

An arbitrator recently ordered Philadelphia-based NPR affiliate WHYY to rehire reporter Jad Sleiman, who was fired for sharing clips of his stand-up comedy online, ruling that he hadn’t violated WHYY’s policy against inflammatory social media posts because…the jokes were funny. Analyzing the stand-up bits, the arbitrator found that while some could potentially be offensive, many were clever critiques, and one was “simply funny.” WHYY told news outlets it was reviewing the decision and its next steps, but Sleiman has already decided on his, saying, “I’m going to walk in there like f**king Vince McMahon.”

Read: Are flying cars finally here? (Vox)

Watch: How movies make characters look bigger or smaller.

Update your vocab: This year’s Banished Words List includes rizz, iconic, and slay.

Preserve: This video explains the difference between pickling and fermenting.

On location: Here’s a map showing where Timon and Pumbaa from The Lion King could live together.

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