The long and tangled journey of the abortion pill to the United States--expected to culminate with its introduction here later this month--began with the zeal of two women, who marshaled a force of moneyed activists to do for themselves what the major pharmaceutical companies would not.
In a highly unusual twist on the way most medications find their way to market, this cobbled-together group took on roles usually reserved for corporate executives and marketing experts, picking its way through the minefields of abortion politics to win federal approval this fall of the drug compound, mifepristone, commonly known as RU-486.
The pill's 11-year journey to the United States included a cloak-and-dagger scheme to hide the identities of participants from anti-abortion activists; allegations of fraud; a dozen lawsuits; and a price tag of at least $50 million.
The company set up to distribute the drug, Danco Laboratories, has gone through four incarnations and at one point was registered as an offshore enterprise. Citing fear that anti-abortion activists might foment violence against those who make and distribute the drug, Danco refuses to release the names of its executives and investors. The company even persuaded the Food and Drug Administration to keep secret the location of the factory where the abortion drug will be produced, despite several published reports that it will be made in bulk at the state-owned Hua Lian Pharmaceutical Co. in Shanghai.
But the real story goes beyond all that. It is what happens when a group of true believers finds the financial means and the political support to use the private sector to its own ends.
Longtime feminist activists Peg Yorkin and Eleanor Smeal; scientists at the nonprofit Population Council; liberal organizations such as the David and Lucille Packard Foundation; abortion rights activists; and even the president of the United States all played a part.
"What united us, the interested individuals and nonprofits and foundations, was the desire to make this very safe, early option available for women," said Sarah Clark, who directs the population program for the Packard Foundation. "Abortion is such a toxic subject that the ordinary channels for this drug were not available."
The existence of the coalition--and its ultimate success on Sept. 28 when the FDA approved mifepristone for use in the United States--has confounded and outraged abortion opponents.
