FDA quietly approved a generic abortion pill ahead of shutdown

The FDA quietly approved a generic form of mifepristone, one of the two medications used in most U.S. abortions, on Tuesday.

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday quietly approved a generic form of mifepristone, one of the two medications used in most U.S. abortions.

That makes the drug, from the company Evita Solutions, the second generic version to hit the market. The first, from pharmaceutical company GenBioPro, was approved in 2019.

Mifepristone is typically used in combination with another pill, misoprostol, to induce abortions. Medication abortions account for nearly two-thirds of abortions in the U.S.

The FDA wrote in a letter to Evita Solutions on Tuesday, the day before the government shutdown began, that its mifepristone tablets were “therapeutically equivalent” to the brand-name version, Mifeprex, which has been available in the U.S. since 2000.

On its website, Evita Solutions describes its mission as normalizing abortion care and assisting “the medical community in recognizing the utility and freedom that medical abortion provides patients.”