Evan Masingill
GenBioPro, which manufactures only the abortion medications mifepristone and misoprostol, has a 'North Star' that guides its work, Masingill says: reproductive freedom for all people. Masingill says the company's tagline since it was launched in 2012 is 'putting access into practice.' And GenBioPro has committed to that core value. In 2019, the company obtained approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to sell the first generic mifepristone tablet in the U.S., which GenBioPro said 'has helped stabilize supply and satisfy the rising demand among patients for medical abortion.' Medication abortion is the most common method of abortion in the U.S. and has become essential for people living in states where abortion is banned or restricted.
GenBioPro is now fighting to protect access to its products. In February, GenBioPro asked a Texas court to include the company as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by state attorneys general from Missouri, Idaho, and Kansas that is seeking to roll back a series of FDA policies implemented during the Biden Administration that have facilitated access to medication abortion. One change the state attorneys general are seeking, for instance, is reinstating the requirement that mifepristone be dispensed in person rather than by mail. In October, GenBioPro urged a federal appeals court to side with it in a lawsuit it filed against West Virginia in 2023 over the state's near-total abortion ban, arguing that the FDA's approval of abortion pills supersedes the state's ban.
Masingill says this work is necessary and that there will always be people in power who try to restrict access to care.
'Does it grind my gears or get me heated?' he says. 'Of course. Is it sad? Yeah. But that doesn't mean we can't do anything.'
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