In the days fol­low­ing the US Supreme Court’s roll­back of fed­er­al abor­tion rights, more than  100 women biotech ex­ec­u­tives came to­geth­er in an open let­ter to con­demn the rul­ing and tell their fel­low drug de­vel­op­ment lead­ers that they “will not stand by silent­ly.”

Ad­dressed to in­dus­try, friends, leg­is­la­tors and elect­ed of­fi­cials, the biotech ex­ec­u­tives said they were join­ing “the re­sound­ing mil­lions in cho­rus” by show­ing their “pro­found dis­may and dis­ap­point­ment” at the de­ci­sion hand­ed down by SCO­TUS last week, a re­ver­sal of Roe v. Wade that had been an­tic­i­pat­ed for weeks fol­low­ing a court leak.

The let­ter — signed by the CEOs of Blade, In­Car­da, Daré Bio­science and a host of oth­er biotechs —  called out the rul­ing’s im­pact on the med­ical prac­ti­tion­ers who are “best suit­ed to pro­vide care.”

Since its orig­i­nal post­ing on Fri­day, the let­ter has grown from about 70 sig­na­to­ries to more than 100, “with mul­ti­ple oth­ers want­i­ng to sign and many view­ing this as a ral­ly­ing point for fur­ther ac­tion,” Re­Code Ther­a­peu­tics CEO Shehnaaz Suli­man told End­points News in an email. The lead­ers said the rul­ing fo­cus­es on the “spe­cial in­ter­ests of the few rather than the in­ter­ests of the ma­jor­i­ty.”

“Abor­tion is re­pro­duc­tive health­care. As doc­tors, sci­en­tists, in­no­va­tors, care­givers, lead­ers and al­lies who are at the fore­front of in­no­va­tion in sci­ence and med­i­cine for the ben­e­fit of pa­tients and women around the world — we de­cry and de­nounce the de­ci­sion by the Court,” the let­ter reads in part.

The let­ter did not point to any de­fin­i­tive or di­rect steps the in­dus­try can take in re­sponse to the rul­ing. Some bio­phar­mas have joined with oth­er com­pa­nies in say­ing they’ll cov­er abor­tion-re­lat­ed trav­el ex­pens­es for em­ploy­ees.

“The mes­sage we have ar­tic­u­lat­ed is one so many women want to add their voice to. The notes I have re­ceived in­clude ex­pres­sions of anger and help­less­ness, but al­so a de­sire to do some­thing and be part of fur­ther ac­tion. I tru­ly hope this let­ter is just the start,” Ju­lia Owens, for­mer Mil­len­do Ther­a­peu­tics CEO, said in an email to End­points News. Mul­ti­ple ad­di­tion­al lead­ers have reached out to Owens ask­ing to add their names, she said.

With dozens of lead­ers from var­i­ous back­grounds join­ing to­geth­er, the let­ter calls for free­dom of choice over one’s own body for every­one, “but es­pe­cial­ly for women, un­der­rep­re­sent­ed mi­nori­ties, and LGBTQIA+ com­mu­ni­ties.”

Shehnaaz Suli­man

In post­ing the let­ter to LinkedIn, Suli­man asked oth­er lead­ers to “join a sea of voic­es to am­pli­fy the call for re­pro­duc­tive health rights for all women.”

A por­tion of the women who signed the let­ter had come to­geth­er for a week­end con­fer­ence in March aimed at form­ing a net­work, spon­sor­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of women lead­ers and map­ping out re­gion­al mee­tups, in­clud­ing one that took place dur­ing BIO last month in San Diego.

In­dus­try lead­ers pre­vi­ous­ly came to­geth­er in Feb­ru­ary to pen a let­ter urg­ing busi­ness lead­ers to “eco­nom­i­cal­ly dis­en­gage from Russ­ian In­dus­try” fol­low­ing the in­va­sion of Ukraine.

Ed­i­tor’s note: This sto­ry was up­dat­ed to in­clude ad­di­tion­al in­for­ma­tion from Ju­lia Owens and Shehnaaz Suli­man.

Rising monkeypox cases have put the US on high alert as it announces a national health emergency, which grants the government more power in its response.

The news comes as Bavarian Nordic continues to fill orders for its Jynneos vaccine and other companies – including Moderna – consider jumping into the vaccine race. Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that the US has allowed around 20 million doses of smallpox vaccine in its stockpile to expire.

Forget buyer’s remorse, Pfizer is likely feeling pretty good about its $11.6 billion Biohaven takeover deal following reports of a 57% sales boost for migraine med Nurtec.

Biohaven reported in Q2 results on Friday that it’s cleared the necessary antitrust hurdles to move forward with the sale of its calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) assets to Pfizer. However, because the company is “focused on workstreams related to the closing” of the deal, it did not host a call with analysts and investors.