{"id":329665,"date":"2025-04-23T10:43:40","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T15:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=329665"},"modified":"2025-04-22T13:36:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T18:36:07","slug":"abortion-pill-manufacturer-paid-consultants-conflicts-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/abortion-pill-manufacturer-paid-consultants-conflicts-interest\/","title":{"rendered":"Did abortion pill manufacturer’s paid ‘consultants’ disclose conflicts of interest?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Public data reveals<\/a> that generic abortion pill manufacturer GenBioPro has paid approximately $165,000 in “consulting fees” and “honoraria” in the past few years \u2014 and the recipients do not always note this as a potential conflict of interest in published studies.<\/p>\n

In 2019, GenBioPro<\/a> was approved<\/a> by the FDA as the generic manufacturer of mifepristone<\/a> (200mg), the abortion pill, and it has been financially supported<\/a> by pro-abortion philanthropists \u2014 much like the drug’s name brand (Mifeprex) manufacturer, Danco Laboratories<\/a>, which was approved in 2000 for induced abortion in combination with the drug misoprostol. GenBioPro recently requested<\/a> to “intervene” in a significant abortion pill lawsuit where it claimed<\/a> to be the \u201csole supplier of generic mifepristone in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is significant that GenBioPro now controls<\/a> roughly two-thirds of the abortion pill market.<\/p>\n

Uncovering “financial relationships”<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The public data website Open Payments<\/a> (openpayments.cms.gov<\/em>) exists to “collect[] and publish[] information about financial relationships between drug and medical device companies (referred to as ‘reporting entities’) and certain health care providers (referred to as ‘covered recipients’). These relationships may involve payments to providers for things including but not limited to research, meals, travel, gifts or speaking fees.”<\/p>\n

Why is this important? Transparency and accountability<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As a 2021 CMS report<\/a> notes, Open Payments “is a statutorily required, national disclosure program that promotes transparency and accountability by making information about the financial relationships between reporting entities and covered recipients available to the public.”<\/p>\n

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) website<\/a> was established in 2013 and contains data including<\/a> “payments and other transfers of value made to covered recipients, along with ownership and investment interests held by physicians or their immediate family members in the reporting entities.” Data totals retrievable at Open Payments differ from totals published in the annual reports.<\/p>\n

The “sole” generic U.S. abortion pill supplier’s financial interests<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It is rare that the abortion industry receives any scrutiny \u2014 particularly from mainstream media and political allies. Therefore, the data revealed on Open Payments can help the public to connect financial dots, so to speak, when the media fails to do its job.<\/p>\n

Open Payments reveals that GenBioPro paid<\/a> $44,100 in consulting fees in 2023<\/a>, $39,850 in 2022<\/a>, $36,951 in 2021<\/a>, and $39,875 in 2020. Those fees were distributed to just four<\/em> physicians \u2014 all of whom have significant connections to abortion.<\/p>\n

CMS defines<\/a> a consulting fee as “[a] payment that a company makes to a physician for advice and expertise about a medical product or treatment,” adding that “[c]onsulting fees are typically arranged with a written agreement between a company and physician based on the company\u2019s particular business needs. These payments often vary depending on the consulting physician\u2019s expertise.”<\/p>\n

The four physicians who received consulting fees are detailed below from data<\/a> sent to CMS from January 2017 through December 2023.<\/p>\n

DeShawn Taylor<\/strong><\/a> = $139,000 in consulting fees<\/strong><\/p>\n

Taylor is currently a senior medical director<\/a> GenBioPro (GBP), according to Vox. Taylor was given the lion’s share of the consulting fees, receiving $31,875 in 2020<\/a>, $32,251 in 2021<\/a>, $36,350 in 2022<\/a>, and $38,400 in 2023<\/a>. In addition, Taylor received food and travel payments.<\/p>\n

Taylor was one of the Planned Parenthood<\/a> abortionists<\/a>\u00a0recorded in\u00a0undercover video<\/a>\u00a0by the\u00a0Center for Medical Progress<\/a> admitting to committing abortions \u201cup to 24 weeks\u201d and described needing to “hit the gym<\/a>” in order to have the strength to perform second-trimester D&E abortions without the use of digoxin. Taylor claimed in a court brief<\/a> filed in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization<\/em> case heard before the U.S. Supreme Court that \u201cabortion saves lives.\u201d She founded<\/a> the Desert Star Institute for Family Planning (DSIFFP) abortion facility<\/a> in 2017. Ironically, GenBioPro\u2019s president<\/a> Evan Masingill, was previously listed as one of the first board members to join<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0abortion facility<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Taylor also co-authored<\/a> the ‘no-test’ abortion pill protocol, in which she disclosed<\/a> her associations with GBP.<\/p>\n

Matthew Reeves<\/strong><\/a> =<\/strong> $14,000 in consulting fees <\/strong><\/p>\n

Reeves is the founder<\/a> of the DuPont Clinic in Washington, D.C. \u2014 a late-term abortion facility. Reeves was given $1,500 in 2023<\/a>, $2,700 in 2022<\/a>, $3,000 in 2021<\/a>, $3,700 in September 2020<\/a>, and $3,100 in May 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reeves failed to disclose any of this to the pro-abortion Journal Contraception, which published<\/a> “One-day versus two-day mifepristone\u2013misoprostol interval prior to initiation of misoprostol during late second trimester medication abortion: A cohort study,” co-authored by Reeves, in its April 2024 issue. Though Reeves did not disclose this particular conflict, he disclosed the conflict in a separate study<\/a> published in September 2024.<\/p>\n

Reeves’ online bio and LinkedIn page<\/a> indicates that he is a former<\/a> medical director of the National Abortion Federation, former National Medical Committee Chairperson and “physician” at Planned Parenthood, Associate Director for Research at the Fellowship in Family Planning at Washington Hospital Center, and Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Stanford University School of Medicine.<\/p>\n

His Johns Hopkins bio<\/a> states that he was “faculty at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and an attending physician at Magee-Womens Hospital working in both the Ultrasound and Gynecologic Specialties divisions” before moving to D.C. \"Matthew<\/p>\n

According to Reeves’ LinkedIn<\/a> page, “He currently has appointments as an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stanford University and as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Reeves attended Harvard Medical School and completed residency in obstetrics & gynecology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He then completed the fellowship in Clinical Ultrasound at UCSF followed by the Fellowship in Family Planning at the University of Pittsburgh.”<\/p>\n

Reeves also served on the\u00a0board<\/a>\u00a0of DKT International, recently\u00a0accused<\/a> of shipping abortion drugs into the U.S. manufactured by the Delhi-based Synokem Pharmaceuticals Ltd, which was alleged<\/a> to have a \u201cshoddy quality record.\u201d DKT\u2019s U.S. affiliate is the abortion chain Carafem (corporate name FemHealth USA, Inc<\/a>.),which was part of the U.S.\u00a0TelAbortion clinical trial<\/a>, sponsored by Gynuity Health Foundation.<\/p>\n

Rachel Steward<\/strong><\/a> = $4,600 in consulting fees<\/strong><\/p>\n

Steward co-authored<\/a> a controversial abortion pill study published<\/a> by ACOG’s Green Journal in 2019 (prior to receiving funds), which essentially attacked the effectiveness of the “abortion pill reversal” (APR) protocol. From GenBioPro, Steward received $1,200 in 2023<\/a>, $800 in 2022<\/a>, $1,400 in 2021<\/a>, and $1,200 in 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Steward works<\/a> at the Family Planning Associates (FPA) abortion chain in California. Both FPA and \u201cRachel Steward\u201d are mentioned<\/a> by name in the Center for Medical Progress undercover investigations (transcript here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Kurt Barnhart<\/strong><\/a> = $3,000 in consulting fees<\/strong><\/p>\n

Barnhart, a Penn Medicine<\/a> physician and Vice Chair<\/a> for Research and the Director of the Women\u2019s Health Clinical Research Center in the Perelman School of Medicine, received $3,000 in 2023<\/a> from GenBioPro.<\/p>\n

In 2020, while he technically did not have “competing interests” at that time, Barnhart published<\/a> a commentary in the Lancet promoting the use of mifepristone for miscarriage treatment.<\/p>\n

GenBioPro’s paid “honoraria”<\/strong><\/h3>\n

GenBioPro paid $4,000 in “honoraria” to multiple additional people between 2020 and 2021. An honorarium is “[s]imilar to consulting fees, but generally reserved for a brief, one-time activity” which is “generally provided for services without a set price,” the CMS website<\/a> stated.<\/p>\n

Jennefer Russo<\/a><\/strong>, who claims<\/a> to have held leadership roles at Planned Parenthood, received $500 from GBP in 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Russo is a past Medical Director<\/a> and Vice President of Clinical Services for Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties (PPOSBC), editor for the pro-abortion journal Contraception, and chief medical officer of DuPont Clinic, according to the New York Times<\/a>. Russo can also be heard in an undercover Center for Medical Progress video discussing<\/a> the sale<\/a> of aborted fetal parts. The video<\/a> confirmed<\/a> that Russo’s Planned Parenthood affiliate worked with the for-profit biotech company, DaVinci Biosciences, which harvested the organs of aborted babies to sell nationally and internationally.<\/p>\n