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 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.