States allowed to intervene in case threatening integrity of FDA drug regulation 

In a move that could have important implications for both drug regulation and abortion rights, a federal judge has granted three states the right to intervene in a legal dispute over FDA’s approval and regulation of access to the abortion drug mifepristone. The decision by U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk could give the case a second life, if the Supreme Court determines that the original plaintiffs lacked legal standing.

Kacsmaryk’s ruling, issued Friday, shores up one of the weakest elements of the case against FDA. He ruled last year that physicians who brought the case had standing because there was some possibility they could be forced to treat a woman who was suffering from complications caused by mifepristone. This broad definition of standing is unlikely to be upheld by the Supreme Court, legal scholars told BioCentury...