Walgreens, CVS to offer abortion pills after FDA relaxes rules
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Six months after the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, the FDA has rolled out a regulatory change that will allow retail pharmacies to offer abortion pills. Until now, only a handful of mail-order pharmacies and certified doctors were allowed to prescribe and stock the tablets, but the new rules will give more access to states where abortion remains legal. While pharmacies will have to decide whether to offer the drugs, some sellers have already jumped on the bandwagon.
Quote: "We intend to become a certified pharmacy under the program," Walgreens (NASDAQ:WBA) said in a statement. "We are working through the registration, necessary training of our pharmacists, as well as evaluating our pharmacy network in terms of where we normally dispense products that have extra FDA requirements and will dispense these consistent with federal and state laws."
Other companies, such as Rite Aid (NYSE:RAD), are reviewing the new FDA rules, while CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) said it will seek certification where legally permissible. Besides becoming certified, pharmacies must commit to only fill prescriptions from certified prescribers, while maintaining records and confidentiality. Prior to the pandemic, there was an "in-person" clause that required patients to see healthcare providers in a physical location, but that was relaxed in April 2021 and allowed the pills to be sent by mail.
Other details: Abortion pills containing mifepristone work together with another drug called misoprostol by blocking a hormone necessary to sustain pregnancy and causing uterine contractions. Mifepristone is sold under the brand name Mifeprex by Danco Laboratories, as well as generic manufacturers like GenBioPro. According to the Guttmacher Institute, the use of abortion pills has steadily climbed among medical providers since first being approved in 2000, accounting for over half of all U.S. abortions last year.