Scientists and senior executives from more than 400 pharmaceutical and biotech companies and also investment firms issued what the New York Times called a “scorching condemnation” of the ruling of Texas District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued late Friday, April 7th that invalidated the Food and Drug Administration’s 23-year-old approval of the abortion pill mifepristone.

Titled “In Support of FDA’s Authority to Regulate Medicines”, the letter excerpts shared on AOC read:

On Friday, April 7, a federal judge with no scientific training fundamentally undermined the bipartisan authority granted by Congress to the Food and Drug Administration to approve and regulate safe, effective medicines for every American.

District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a decision that overturns the 23-year old approval of mifepristone, the primary medicine used in abortion and miscarriage care, and which has been proven by decades of data to be safer than Tylenol, nearly all antibiotics and insulin.

The decision ignores decades of scientific evidence and legal precedent. Judge Kacsmaryk’s act of judicial interference has set a precedent for diminishing FDA’s authority over drug approvals, and in so doing, creates uncertainity for the entire biopharma industry . . .

As an industry dedicated to improving human health, and as members of the biopharma industry, we add our signatures to this letter and stand together to unequivocally support the continued authority of the FDA to regulate new medicines.

In the face of laws and rulings that aim to undermine the evidence-based and legislatively sanctioned authority of federally mandated institutions such as the FDA to protect public interests, and by putting an entire industry focused on medical innovation at risk, we cannot stay quiet. 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.

As American citizens and interested parties, we are invited to add our names to the letter. Anne of Carversville has signed on to the simple Google doc. Texas District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s assault on science and a key federal institution deeply embedded in American life — the FDA — was even more chilling to me as an American citizen than the June 24, 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned the nearly five-decades-old Roe v Wade decision.