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  • Title: Foundation gets rights to RU-486. "Abortion pill" stalled in U.S.
    Journal: Sun; 1994 May 17; ():1A, 9A. PubMed ID: 12287701.
    Abstract:
    On May 16, 1994, the French manufacturer of the abortifacient drug RU-486 donated its US patent rights to the Population Council, an international nonprofit research organization. The manufacturer, Roussel-Uclaf, took this step largely due to fears that US anti-abortion groups would follow through on threats to boycott other products from the corporation. Clinical trials involving 2000 women from 12 US sites will begin in Fall 1994 and application to the US Food and Drug Administration will follow. If the safety and efficacy of RU-486 are documented, as they have been in European clinical trials, the drug could be available to US women by 1996. The Clinton Administration has hailed this step as a means of providing US women with a nonsurgical alternative to abortion. Abortion opponents, on the other hand, have characterized RU-486 as a form of "baby poisoning" and express concerns that women injured by the drug will be ineligible for financial compensation given the Population Council's nonprofit status. Strict distribution and use conditions are expected. In Europe, RU-486 is dispensed in a physician's office or clinic. The woman returns 2 days later for a dose of prostaglandin and remains in the medical facility until the abortion is complete.
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