Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla attends a conversation during the World Economic Forum WEF 2022 Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, May 25, 2022.
Zheng Huansong | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images
Pfizer’s CEO signed on to an open letter calling for the reversal of a federal judge’s decision to suspend the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion pill mifepristone.
Albert Bourla was among the more than 200 pharmaceutical company executives who signed the letter after U.S. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s controversial ruling Friday.
“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,” the letter said.
The executives expressed support for the FDA’s authority to regulate drugs and said Kacsmaryk’s decision “ignores decades of scientific evidence and legal precedent.” They also raised concerns that the ruling will “set a precedent” for diminishing the FDA’s authority over drug approvals, which would create uncertainty for the entire industry.
“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 executives wrote in the letter.
They added that regulatory uncertainty will likely reduce incentives for investing in new drugs, which would endanger the “innovation that characterizes our industry.”
Pfizer is one of the first major pharmaceutical companies to publicly react to the ruling. Among the other executives who signed the letter is Biogen President Alisha Alaimo.
The letter included a link to a Google form for other executives and employees to add their names. Merck, Moderna, Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Kacsmaryk sided with an anti-abortion group, arguing…
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