Pharmacies can apply for certification to distribute abortion pill mifepristone with one of the two companies that make it, and if successful they will be able to dispense it directly to patients upon receiving a prescription from a certified prescriber.
Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro, the two companies that make the drug in the United States, submitted supplemental applications that have now been approved by the FDA. Mifeprex is the brand name version of mifepristone, which in combination with a second drug called misoprostol that has various uses including miscarriage management, induces an abortion up to 10 weeks into a pregnancy in a process known as medication abortion.
Abortion bans, some targeting mifepristone, have gone into effect in more than a dozen states since the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to terminating pregnancies when it scrapped its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling last year.