RFK plans to take on Big Pharma. It’s easier said than done

But the administration will likely face legal challenges if it proposes additional restrictions or an outright ban on pharmaceutical ads, says Jim Potter, executive director of the nonpartisan Coalition for Health Communications. “Courts view advertising as a form of commercial speech, and have ruled in a series of cases dating back to the 1970s that banning advertising violates the First Amendment’s free speech protections,” he says. “If the administration wanted to unilaterally impose the new rules, they would be on shakier legal ground today than in years past.”

That’s because the Supreme Court of the United States last summer overturned the long the Chevron doctrinewhich allowed federal agencies some latitude in how they interpreted ambiguous laws. The Supreme Court ruling shifts power from agencies like the FDA to the courts.

Ballreich and Weissman worry that Kennedy’s support for raw milk, vitamins and proven treatments for Covid-19, including ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, could lead to the agency approving medicines that lack scientific evidence.

“I think that when Robert Kennedy talks about fighting corruption and the monopolies of Big Pharma, this translates into a reduction of standards in the FDA to enable the authorization and promotion of ineffective and dubious therapies, drugs, herbs, whatever Weissman says.

As HHS secretary, Kennedy would not be directly responsible for approving new drugs or treatments. That job falls to the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, which most often approves drugs based on the recommendations of independent advisory committees. But in a handful of controversial cases, the agency has approved drugs against this expert advice, such as when it greenlit Exondys 51, a drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, in 2016. FDA advisors they said there wasn’t enough evidence to show he had the drug. real clinical benefits.

RFK also called for more testing of vaccines, which have already been tested on thousands of healthy volunteers for several years before being released. This skepticism could play into fewer vaccines coming to market and more postmarket monitoring of approved vaccines.

Working with Mehmet Oz, Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Kennedy could push to get questionable treatments or medical devices covered by Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people age 65 or more and those with disabilities.

But Kennedy’s anti-pharmacy stance could be tempered by congressional Republicans, who have historically been reluctant to further regulation, and other Trump appointees. The incoming president made a more conventional choice for FDA commissioner in Marty Makary, a pancreatic surgeon and public policy researcher at Johns Hopkins. Meanwhile, Vivek Ramaswamy, founder of the pharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences and Republican presidential candidate, has been tap to drive the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a presidential advisory commission planned under the second Trump administration.

“There are huge question marks with the Trump administration and its approach to pharmaceuticals in general,” says Ballreich. “It’s hard to know how this will really shake out.”