Abortion Pill Ruling Threatens Pharmaceutical Innovation
Bringing new drugs to market is already expensive and time-consuming. Undercutting the FDA will only make it harder.
French physician and biochemist Etienne-Emile Baulieu, in 2008. Baulieu developed RU 486, the first safe, effective abortion pill.
Photographer: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images/AFPA Texas federal judge’s ruling to remove the 23-year old drug mifepristone from the market not only threatens abortion access in the US — it’s also an appalling sideswipe at the Food and Drug Administration’s authority and expertise.
And if allowed to stand, it will have a stifling effect on pharmaceutical innovation. Discovering and developing a drug is expensive; depending on who you ask, the average cost of bringing a new medicine or vaccine from idea to market is anywhere from a few hundred million dollars to more than $2 billion.