Word: pills
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...been your usual drug approval process. At the White House, where information is power and officials pride themselves on having the inside scoop, virtually everyone learned that the Food and Drug administration approved the revolutionary abortion pill called mifepristone from - of all places - CNN. President Clinton learned about it only moments earlier from Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala. And Shalala got the news by telephone from FDA commissioner Jane Henney - after the FDA made the announcement public...
...protests begin. On Thursday, under extraordinary scrutiny, the Food and Drug Administration approved RU-486, otherwise known as "the French abortion pill," for marketing in the United States under the name Mifeprex. The drug, which is actually two pills taken under a physician's supervision over the course of two days, has been proven extremely effective in ending pregnancies up to the 50th day following conception. These pills are different from the "morning after pill," or emergency contraceptive, which is administered in the 72 hours following intercourse. The FDA, which has been hemming and hawing over final approval...
...take the drug. "This is a sad day for women," said a spokesperson for the Family Research Council. Pro-choice groups, longtime supporters of the drug, expressed gratification at the decision, calling the approval an advance in women's health on par with the introduction of the birth control pill...
...have had access to RU-486 for 12 years, but attempts to import the drug to the United States have been stymied internally by contentious debate. And even when the Clinton administration lifted a ban on importing the controversial drug in 1993, the French manufacturer declined to distribute the pill here, citing the explosive political undercurrents...
...Instead, Roussel-UCLAF, which holds the pill's 20-year-old patent, granted sole American distribution rights to the Population Council, a nonprofit organization specializing in reproductive issues, with the understanding the group would conduct clinical trials and find a manufacturer for the drug. And after six years of research and more than a few last-minute panic attacks from would-be manufacturing companies, the moment has arrived. The Population Council concluded a hugely successful drug trial in which 92 percent of the participants achieved successful medical abortions - the remaining 8 percent required surgical intervention to complete the procedure. Within...