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25 Patient and Provider Groups Applaud Supreme Court Ruling, Though Express Concern About Other Plaintiffs Keeping FDA Authority Challenge Alive

Washington, D.C., 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