Texas could save as much as $898 million over the next two years if it imported prescription drugs, according to the state Legislature’s budget crunchers.

That savings equals almost 10 percent of the total of $9 billion that Texas likely will spend on drugs in its next two budgets, the Legislative Budget Board said in a report released on Wednesday.

Prescription drug costs are soaring around the United States. Several states and cities are weighing importing drugs from Canada, while a handful of states hope to save money by buying drugs as a group.

Texas’s $9 billion estimate is $3 billion more than what the state will spend on drugs in its current two-year budget plan.

“Texas manages its spending on prescription drugs in an uncoordinated manner and has had limited success in achieving consolidation of pharmaceutical purchasing,” the legislature’s report said.

A spokesman for Republican Gov. Rick Perry was not immediately available for comment.