US pharma group opposing abortion pill restrictions also backs Republicans attacking drug
A top trade group for pharmaceutical companies has askedthe US supreme court not to shred the power of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in an upcoming case that couldcutaccess to a drug commonly used in abortions. But in a move that appears to undermine its own position,it has also given more than $125,000 to a GOP organization that backs the Republicans who want the supreme court to do exactly the opposite.
The trade group, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, lobbies on behalf of brand-name drug manufacturers. In October and January,it filed briefsin an upcoming supreme court case that threatens to curtail access to a common abortion drug called mifepristone.
The high court will consider a ruling by the conservative fifth circuit court of appeals that, if upheld, would significantly roll back access to the drug, which has been expanded in a series of regulatory actions by the FDA.The supreme court justices may also rule on some of the more technical elements of the case, such as whether the antiabortion activists have the legal right to bring the case in the first place.
Dragging the FDA into the United States’ abortion wars could have vast consequences for all kinds of drugs, PhRMA warned in its Januarybrief.
“For decades, biopharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers, patients, and other stakeholders have relied on FDA’s expert scientific judgment on drug approval, labeling, and post-approval marketing requirements,” lawyers for PhRMA wrote. The federal appeals court ruling, they added, “threatens limitless litigation by inviting virtually any healthcare provider to bring suit to challenge any drug approval or subsequent change”.
Yet according toresearch by Accountable.US that has been independently verified by the Guardian, in May 2023, PhRMA gave more than $125,000 to the Republican Attorneys General Association (Raga), which seeks to elect and re-elect GOP state attorneys general. Just a few weeks before that donation, 19 of the Republican state attorneys general within Raga filed a brief with the supreme court alleging that the FDA’s approval of mifepristone had “basic legal flaws”. The agency’s approach to mifepristone, the attorneys general suggested, even defied federal law.
In January 2023, several of those attorneys general also sent a letter to the FDA’s commissioner accusing the agency of having “abdicated its responsibility to protect women’s health”.
A few months later, in April 2023, a Texas federal judge ruled in favor of a coalition of anti-abortion groups who asked him to entirely suspend the FDA’s 2000 authorization of mifepristone. The fifth circuit narrowed that ruling, rolling back more recent measures by the FDA that, since 2016, have expanded access to mifepristone. The Biden administration and mifepristone’s manufacturer have appealed that decision to the supreme court.
More than 100 different studies, conducted over several years and countries, have concluded that mifepristone is safe, a 2023 New York Times review found.
“PhRMA claims to oppose this lawsuit that could deny women access to the safe, widely-used mifepristone, yet they bankrolled the top political group for anti-choice attorneys general who further threaten access,” Caroline Ciccone, president of the nonpartisan government watchdog group Accountable.US.
Trade groups like PhRMA don’t typically give donations to pursue some ideological goal, according to Sarah Bryner, director of research and strategy of OpenSecrets, which tracks money in US politics. They are interested in getting their lobbyists into the offices of whoever is in power.
“They’re seeking access to members [of Congress] and elected officials, once those people take office,” Bryner said. “We’ve heard from members in the past saying that there’s 24 hours in a day and you have to sleep, so who are you going to have meetings with? Typically, you’ll want to have meetings with constituents and then also the people