Attempt comes after appeals court ruled agency likely overstepped its authority in warnings against ivermectin.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seeking to persuade a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging its repeated advisories against using ivermectin to treat COVID-19.
The FDA in a sealed motion asked the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to dismiss the suit, which was brought by three doctors who allege the FDA’s warnings were illegal.
The late 2023 motion was sealed because exhibits the government cited “include confidential information” from a separate legal proceeding, according to a government brief.
Government lawyers said they would file redacted versions of the motion for public perusal but still have not done so.
Attorneys for the doctors said on Jan. 12 that the court should reject the government’s fresh bid to throw out the case.
“The FDA exceeded its authority by repeatedly issuing public directives not to use ivermectin for COVID-19, even though the drug remains fully approved for human use,” they wrote.
One of the directives said: “You are not a horse. Stop it with the #Ivermectin. It’s not authorized for treating #COVID.”
The government motion came after an appeals court found the FDA likely overstepped its authority with the warnings.
“FDA can inform, but it has identified no authority allowing it to recommend consumers ’stop’ taking medicine,” U.S. Circuit Judge Don Willett, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, wrote in the ruling.
The appeals court remanded the case back to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown, who said in 2022 that the doctors failed to prove their allegations.
The FDA in the sealed motion asked Judge Brown, another appointee of President Trump, to dismiss the case.
According to lawyers for the doctors, the FDA’s motion includes arguments that claim the plaintiffs have not suffered injuries that are traceable to the FDA, and that cannot be remedied by a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs.
