IVERMECTIN: Federal Court Ruled FDA Likely Abused Its Authority
Victory for consumers, patients, doctors, and pharmacists.
The timeline:
On June 2, 2022, three doctors-—Drs. Robert L. Apter, Mary Talley Bowden, and Paul E. Marik*—filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) over their interfering in the doctor-patient relationship and overstepping their authority in regards to giving medical advice.
On December 6, 2022, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown ruled that the law does not support their case. The doctors appealed this decision.
On September 2, 2023, U.S. Circuit Judge Don Willett ruled that Judge Brown erred, and that the “FDA can inform, but it has identified no authority allowing it to recommend consumers ‘stop’ taking medicine.”
According to Boyden and Gray, PLLC, the law firm handling the case, the FDA & HHS “acted outside of its authority and illegally interfered with their ability to practice medicine by directing the public, including health professionals and patients, to not use ivermectin, a drug that has received full FDA approval for human use.”
From the ruling:
“FDA is not a physician. It has authority to inform, announce, and apprise—but not to endorse, denounce, or advise. The Doctors have plausibly alleged that FDA’s Posts fell on the wrong side of the line between telling about and telling to. As such, the Doctors can use the APA to assert their ultra vires claims against the Agencies and the Officials.
Even tweet-sized doses of personalized medical advice are beyond FDA’s statutory authority. We REVERSE the district court’s judgment of dismissal, and we REMAND for further proceedings.”
The Epoch Times wrote: “The appeals court panel remanded the case back to Judge Brown to decide on whether the doctors have standing. The ruling followed oral arguments before the panel.”
Read the Judge’s Ruling Against FDA.
Next steps: The case has been returned to Judge Brown for a ruling regarding the doctors standing. If he rules in their favor, the case will move forward. In the meantime, we celebrate the victory of the September 2nd decision that the FDA likely abused its authority.
*Dr. Marik was one of the doctors who came to Tennessee during the 2022 legislative session to educate the General Assembly on the safety and effectiveness of ivermectin for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.
- See the testimony of Dr. Marik, Dr. Denise Sibley, and Dr. Pierre Kory HERE.
- See the testimony of Dr. Ryan Cole, Dr. Denise Sibley, and Dr. Robert Malone HERE.
On April 22, 2022 Senate Bill 2188 was signed into law in Tennessee, allowing consumers to buy ivermectin without a prescription, after consultation from a participating pharmacist. Click here for a list of participating pharmacies.
As of this posting, Tennessee is the only state in the U.S. where ivermectin can be purchased without a prescription.