Free Republic

In a letter to pro-life Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary has committed to conducting a full review of the dangerous abortion pill – which has killed and injured countless women. Makary made the commitment after Senator Josh Hawley sent a letter highlighting new research showing greater risks than the FDA currently acknowledges and urging Makary to reconsider his earlier statement that he had “no plans to take action.” “As Commissioner of Food and Drugs, I am committed to conducting a review of mifepristone,” the FDA chief said in a letter to the senator, who highlighted it...

While the abortion pill is touted as “safe and effective,” shocking new data suggests complications are 22 times higher than previously reported. A study from the Ethics and Public Policy Center released on Monday found that 10.93 percent of women who had mifepristone abortions — the first drug used in a two-drug medication abortion regimen — experienced severe complications including sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious adverse event within 45 days following the abortion. This percentage is significantly higher than the less than 0.5 percent in clinical trials reported on the FDA-approved drug label. The study is the “largest-known study...

Planned Parenthood has admitted that the abortion pill can be dangerous. This was pointed out by American Life League in what its national director Katie Brown Xavios labeled a “rare moment of honest transparency.” “Planned Parenthood has confirmed the dangers that American Life League has been warning about for decades. No, abortion pills are NOT safe, especially when they come from an unregulated source,” stated Xavios. “The irony in all this falls on the fact that Planned Parenthood themselves refer women directly to these online vendors that send pills recklessly and without any authorization or regulation. But let’s not forget,...

Senator J.D Vance (R-OH) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he supported Americans having access to abortion pill Mifepristone Host Kristen Welker said, “Let me move on to my next question. I want to talk about the Heritage Foundation. It’s a conservative think tank in Washington. It shapes the agenda they would like to see in a Trump second term.”

HONOLULU (KHON2) -- Drug cartels from Mexico are operating in Hawaii, making and pushing deadly drugs including methamphetamines and fentanyl. New tougher penalties akin to murder charges are aiming to take them down. Authorities told KHON2 that the big cartels are ramping up business not just south of the border but right here in our island state. The top federal law enforcement official in Hawaii warns of the dangers not just to drug users, but to drug pushers once caught. Authorities have seen a big shift in recent years to Hawaii’s most dangerous drugs methamphetamine and fentanyl especially coming mostly...

Opill, the first oral contraceptive approved for over-the-counter use in the United States, will be available in stores and online this month, with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $19.99 for a one-month supply and $49.99 for a three-month supply, according to Perrigo, the company behind the product. Perrigo announced Monday that Opill has shipped to major retailers and pharmacies and will be available to pre-order from select retailers beginning this week. Once the product hits shelves, anyone can buy it without a prescription. It will also be available at Opill.com. Opill works as a “mini-pill,” using only the hormone...

A judge has issued a ruling confirming that the state of West Virginia can ban the dangerous abortion pill to protect women and save babies from abortions. The abortion drug manufacturer GenBioPro filed a lawsuit that challenges a ban on abortion drugs in West Virginia. GenBioPro, which manufactures the generic chemical abortion drug mifepristone, asked the court to render the state’s pro-life laws unconstitutional, claiming that Congress gave the Food and Drug Administration the power to mandate nationwide access to dangerous chemical abortions—preempting West Virginia’s duly-enacted pro-life laws that protect the lives of the unborn and mothers. But a federal...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Katy Tur Reports,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) stated that prescribing abortion pill mifepristone in defiance of any Supreme Court ruling against the drug is “on the table,” and that such a ruling will “cost people’s lives, women in particular, sadly. And so, if that’s what’s at stake, we’ll do whatever it takes to save lives.” Host Katy Tur asked, “Is there anything you can do as a Governor if mifepristone gets struck down by the Supreme Court?”

Patients needing a fecal microbiota transplant for recurrent Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) infections now have the option of getting stool in pill form.Fecal transplant pills (artistic rendering) (Marc Bruxelle/Shutterstock)The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved Vowst, the first oral biologic drug for fecal microbiota that was shown in clinical trials to be as effective as fecal microbiota transplants given rectally. Biologic drugs are derived from blood, proteins, bacteria, and other living organisms.In a traditional fecal microbiota transplant or FMT, healthy donor stool is transferred into the colon of a patient, usually via colonoscopy or retention enema. Late last...

Vice President Kamala Harris mistakenly credited a nonexistent federal agency with approving mifepristone in 2000, the first drug used in a two-drug medication abortion regimen. While speaking with Noticias Telemundo’s Vanessa Hauc in an interview that aired on Friday, Harris said the “Federal Drug Administration” is responsible for approving the abortion pill, Fox News reported. While the agency is not real, it would have the same abbreviation as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which did approve mifepristone:

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that he did not like a federal judge’s ruling to suspend Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the abortion pill mifepristone.

The names of the COVID-19 variants are getting longer. The current version is omicron-XBB.1.5, and it is credited with a spike in hospitalizations during late December in New York City that is now moving throughout the Northeast. Coincidentally, this is the country’s most highly vaccinated and boosted region. According to an analysis by Eric Topol, executive vice president of the Research Department of Molecular Medicine at the Scripps Institute, XBB.1.5 has mutations that lead to immune escape and possesses a distinct growth advantage against the previous dominant omicron variant, BQ.1. More great news includes a study published in Cell that...

A group of students at Boston University has brought a vending machine to campus that dispenses Plan B at a lower cost for students, NBC Boston reported. Plan B, also known as the morning-after pill, is a form emergency contraception that can prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex or when another birth control method might’ve failed. The vending machine, one of the first of its kind in the country, is located in the basement of the student union on Boston University's campus, NBC Boston reported. Instead of snacks, the machine is stocked with a generic version of Plan B (levonorgestrel) sold...

Vice President Kamala Harris has said she had “no symptoms” following her COVID-19 diagnosis - but some medical experts were left baffled after it was revealed she was taking an antiviral pill designed to treat patients with severe cases. Harris’ office announced Tuesday that the vice president was prescribed and had used Pfizer’s Paxlovid following a consultation with her doctors just hours after she tested positive for the virus. Paxlovid is designed to reduce severe symptoms among high risk patients, which has some experts questioning why it would be prescribed to a healthy, double-boosted and asymptomatic 57-year-old patient. “Asymptomatic covid...

MADISON, Wis.– They’ve been called a ‘game-changer’ in treating COVID-19, but local healthcare workers say Wisconsin’s supply of coronavirus pills is largely going unused. A challenge to prescribe “It’s not as easy to get these pills out to people as you might think,” UW Health Hospitalist Dr. Bart Caponi told News 3. When state hospitals and pharmacies got their first shipments of pills in January, Caponi expected they’d go quickly. “They’re for people who are at the highest risk of becoming very sick from COVID, but haven’t become very sick just yet. They can really help a lot of people,”...

BENGALURU, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Indian drugmaker Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd (REDY.NS) will launch its generic version of Merck's (MRK.N) antiviral COVID-19 pill, molnupiravir, and price it at 35 rupees ($0.4693) per capsule, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday. The overall cost for a patient treated with a 5-day course of 40 capsules of the generic drug, to be sold under brand name 'Molflu', will come up to 1,400 rupees ($18.77). In comparison, the treatment with Merck's pill in the United States costs $700.

During an interview aired on Wednesday’s edition of ABC’s “World News Tonight,” President Joe Biden stated that the government has ordered millions of the Pfizer coronavirus antiviral pills, but “I hope we don’t get there. Because if people get the shots, they get their two shots and a booster, they’re not going to be in a position where they’re going to need such a pill.”

During an interview aired on Wednesday’s edition of ABC’s “World News Tonight,” President Joe Biden stated that it will take “weeks to a month” to get the Pfizer coronavirus pill to hospitals, but “it won’t be enough to get to all the hospitals.” Host David Muir asked, “Do you have any idea how quickly the American people will actually see these pills? How soon we’re going to be able to get them to hospitals that are already seeing patients?”

U.S. health regulators on Wednesday authorized the first pill against COVID-19, a Pfizer drug that Americans will be able to take at home to head off the worst effects of the virus. The oral drug, Paxlovid, is a faster, cheaper way to treat early COVID-19 infections, though initial supplies will be extremely limited. All of the previously authorized drugs against the disease require an IV or an injection. An antiviral pill from Merck also is expected to soon win authorization. But Pfizer's drug is all but certain to be the preferred option because of its mild side effects and superior...

Pfizer says testing on its planned COVID-19 treatment pill has shown it is effective against the omicron variant while also maintaining its efficacy in reducing hospitalizations and deaths caused by other variants. According to the Associated Press, a study conducted by Pfizer on 2,250 people showed the pill reduced combined hospitalizations and deaths by about 89% among high-risk adults who took the pill shortly after noticing COVID symptoms. Testing conducted by separate labs showed the treatment remained effective against the omicron variant, despite the pill being developed before omicron was spreading around the world. The treatment was tested against a...