Supreme Court could shut lid on Pandora’s box, shielding FDA

The Supreme Court seems inclined to rebuff an attempt by anti-abortion activists to restrict access to the abortion drug mifepristone. How the court disposes of the case, especially the arguments it makes in overturning lower court decisions, will be critically important for biopharmaceutical companies and FDA.

The best outcome for the biopharma industry would be a clear ruling that the lower courts shouldn’t have considered the case in the first place because the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to sue FDA. This would shut the Pandora’s box that Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas opened in April 2023 when he ruled that physicians with remote and largely imaginary connections to the approval and regulation of mifepristone had standing to sue the agency...