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25 Patient and Provider Groups Applaud Supreme Court Ruling though Express Concern about Other Plaintiffs Keeping FDA Authority Challenge Alive

June 13, 2024

Our 25 organizations, representing patients with serious health conditions and disabilities and their providers, applaud the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling reversing the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine et al. v FDA et al, on the grounds that the plaintiffs don’t have standing in their challenge concerning the use and availability of Mifepristone, a drug prescribed for the treatment of a variety of life-threatening conditions, including cancer. We remain concerned that different plaintiffs will continue to pursue dangerous and unfounded arguments that undermine the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) decisions about drug safety. Today’s ruling allows the possibility that others will continue pursuing the challenge to the FDA’s decisions regarding Mifepristone and that future litigants will seek to block or limit access to other FDA-approved drugs and treatments for reasons unrelated to safety and efficacy, as warned in our amicus brief.

Generations of Americans have trusted the FDA’s expertise, which, over time, has yielded rigorous, science- and evidence-based approval of tens of thousands of lifesaving and life-changing medications and devices for people with serious health conditions. FDA experts are best equipped to determine the safety and efficacy of medications and their conditions of use, and it is dangerous to eviscerate or dilute their authority.

We unequivocally support the FDA’s role in safeguarding patients and urge the Department of Justice to continue rigorously defending that authority.

 

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

The ALS Association

American Cancer Society

American Cancer Society Cancer Action

Network

Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy

American Society of Clinical Oncology

American Society of Hematology

The Arc

Arthritis Foundation

Association for Clinical Oncology

CancerCare

Council of Medical Specialty Societies

Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation

Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

Epilepsy Foundation

Friends of Cancer Research

HealthyWomen

Hemophilia Federation of America

Lupus Foundation of America

Muscular Dystrophy Association

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)

National Multiple Sclerosis Society

National Organization for Rare Disorders

National Patient Advocate Foundation

RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association