Walgreens confirms plans to promote abortion drugs underneath new FDA guidelines

Walgreens expects to supply abortion drugs after the Meals and Drug Administration modified its guidelines for the drug.

“We’re working by the registration, mandatory coaching of our pharmacists, in addition to evaluating our pharmacy community by way of the place we usually dispense merchandise which have further FDA necessities and can dispense these in keeping with federal and state legal guidelines,” a Walgreens spokesman advised medical publication STAT Information on Wednesday.

The FDA altered its necessities for promoting mifepristone on Tuesday, permitting retail pharmacies akin to Walgreens to supply the remedy for the primary time.

All pharmacies should first full an FDA certification course of earlier than they will fill prescriptions for the drug, which can also be recognized by the model title Mifeprex.

Earlier than the rule change, mifepristone was solely obtainable by sure mail-order pharmacies and clinics. And previous to the pandemic, individuals have been required to choose up the remedy in individual.

Mifepristone has been obtainable since 2000 and utilized by an estimated 3.7 million individuals. Greater than half of abortions within the U.S. at the moment are medically induced.

Different main pharmacies, akin to CVS and Ceremony Assist, haven’t but publicly dedicated to providing mifepristone.

“If Walgreens leads the way in which, others will seemingly observe,” College of Pittsburgh well being regulation professor Greer Donley advised STAT Information. “Clearly, they suppose the advantages outweigh the burdens.”