RFK Plans to Take on Big Pharma. It’s Easier Said Than Done

But regulators could face legal challenges if they pass additional restrictions or ban medical advertising, said Jim Potter, executive director of the nonpartisan Coalition for Healthcare Communications. “Courts consider advertising to be a form of commercial communication, and have ruled in a series of cases since the 1970s that banning advertising violates the First Amendment’s protection of free speech,” he says. “If the administration wanted to introduce new laws, they would be in a tougher position today than years ago.”

That’s because the US Supreme Court last summer overturned that precedent Chevron theorywhich allowed federal agencies some leeway in how they interpreted vague laws. The Supreme Court decision shifts power from agencies like the FDA to the courts.

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

“I think when Robert Kennedy talks about fighting corruption and Big Pharma monopolies, that will mean lowering the standards at the FDA so they can approve and promote ineffective and questionable drugs, drugs, herbs, whatever,” says Weissman.

As HHS secretary, Kennedy would not be responsible for approving new drugs or medicines. This task falls to the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, which usually approves drugs based on the recommendations of independent committees. But in several controversial cases, the agency has approved drugs against the advice of these experts, such as when they greenlit Exondys 51, a drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, in 2016. The FDA advisors said that there was not enough evidence to show that the drug had real medical benefits.

RFK has also called for a thorough review of the vaccine, which must already be tested on thousands of healthy volunteers for several years before it can be approved. This skepticism may be reflected in the limited availability of vaccines for sale and the increased 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 dubious treatments or medical devices covered by Medicare, the health insurance program for people 65 and older with disabilities.

But Kennedy’s anti-drug policies could be undermined by congressional Republicans, who have yet to mention more legislation, and who were appointed by Trump. The incoming president has made a popular choice for FDA commissioner in Marty Makary, a pancreatic surgeon and public policy researcher at Johns Hopkins. Meanwhile, Vivek Ramaswamy, the founder of pharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences and a Republican presidential candidate, has sat. beaten lead The Department of Public Works, or DOGE, is a presidential advisory committee created under the second Trump administration.

“There are big questions with the Trump administration and the way they make drugs,” Ballreich says. “It’s hard to know how this will end.”