Courts

CEOs Of Pharmaceutical Companies Really Aren't The Defenders Of Rights We Want. But We May Need Them Right Now.

Can we have a good two weeks where we don't have to rely on the benevolence of people trying to maximize profits for once?

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pills money medicine prescription drug prices cash moneyThe High Court Christians used the Dobbs decision to give the question of abortion access back to the people and the people have been showing their ass since. While the majority of folks think that abortion should be legal, monied actors in the political minority are having a disproportionate say. For example, a Texas judge’s ruling put abortion access in jeopardy for far more people than just Texans, it hit the whole nation.  This will likely force a delayed but inevitable return to the Court as somebody has to resolve the circuit splits. In the meantime, there another force that will have its say in this matter: the voice of the market.

A U.S. judge on Friday suspended the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s two-decade-old approval of the drug, effectively banning sales while a case brought by anti-abortion groups before him continues in the Northern District of Texas.

Last week’s ruling by Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk undermines the FDA’s authority, the letter’s authors wrote, adding that it ignores decades of scientific evidence and legal precedent.

“We call for the reversal of this decision to disregard science, and the appropriate restitution of the mandate for the safety and efficacy of medicines for all with the FDA, the agency entrusted to do so in the first place,” they wrote.

You know things are serious when the CEOs decide to write a sternly worded letter. Change.com petitions and grassroots organization is cool and all, but it is hard to not see that the people you really want on your side in these types of conflicts are people with very large amounts of disposable income and a financial incentive in getting things their way. That’s how oligarchy works, after all. When the money shakes, people will move:

The decision puts the entire industry at risk, the letter says, and sets a precedent for undermining the agency’s authority to approve drugs, adding regulatory uncertainty that they warned would disincentivize investment in new treatments.

“You have the real potential of having medicines not being developed because it’s far too expensive, or medicines that are currently approved being withdrawn because they are political,” [Jeremy] Levin told Reuters

…

“If courts can overturn drug approvals without regard for science or evidence, or for the complexity required to fully vet the safety and efficacy of new drugs, any medicine is at risk for the same outcome as mifepristone,” the letter said.

The ruling could open the possibility to the banning of vaccines and contraception for women, said Levin.

“This is a nightmare scenario for the industry,” he said. “It’s the single worst threat to the industry in over 50 years.”

There is only a matter of time before this call to arms becomes poetic. First they came for Oxycodone, then they came for Mifepristone, etc. Is it an obscenity that basic determinations of healthcare, quality of life, and who lives and dies rests in the profit margins of companies? Yes. It is the obscenity we live in and we should recognize it as such whenever we have the opportunity. But conflict makes for strange bedfellows. And The People need some help before some people steal healthcare away from the majority of us.

Earlier: Corporations Are An Unexpected Ally In Making Abortion Accessible. They’re Also A Part Of The Problem.

Call For Reversal Of Texas Abortion Pill ruling [Reuters]

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Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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