RFK plans to acquire major pharmaceutical companies. Easier said than done

But the administration would likely face legal challenges if it proposed additional restrictions or an outright ban on drug advertising, says Jim Potter, executive director of the nonpartisan Alliance for Healthcare Communications. “Courts view advertising as a form of commercial speech, and have ruled in a series of cases dating back to the 1970s that banning advertising violates First Amendment protections for free speech,” he says. “If the administration wanted to impose new rules unilaterally, it would be on a more shaky legal footing today than in years past.”

This is because last summer the US Supreme Court overturned this long-standing ruling Chevron Doctrinewhich allowed federal agencies some freedom in how to interpret ambiguous laws. The Supreme Court ruling shifts power from agencies like the Food and Drug Administration to the courts.

Balrich and Weissman worry that Kennedy’s support for raw milk, vitamins and unproven treatments for COVID-19, including ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, could lead to the agency approving drugs that lack scientific evidence.

“I think when Robert Kennedy talks about fighting corruption and big pharma monopolies, that will translate into lowering standards at the FDA to enable the licensing and promotion of ineffective and questionable treatments, drugs, herbs, whatever else,” Weisman says.

As secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Kennedy will not be directly responsible for approving new drugs or treatments. This task falls to the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, which often approves drugs based on the recommendations of independent advisory committees. But in a few controversial cases, the agency has approved drugs that contradict this expert advice, such as when it greenlighted Exondys 51, a drug to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy, in 2016. FDA advisers said there was no Sufficient evidence to prove that the drug had an effect on the body. Actual clinical benefits.

The RFK also called for greater scrutiny of vaccines, which already must be tested on thousands of healthy volunteers for several years before they can be licensed. These uncertainties could manifest in fewer vaccines reaching the market and increased post-market surveillance of approved vaccines.

Working with Mehmet Oz, Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Kennedy could push to get questionable treatments or medical devices covered by Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people 65 or older and people with disabilities.

But Kennedy’s anti-drug stance could be softened by Republicans in Congress, who have been historically reticent about further regulation, and other Trump appointees. The incoming president made a more traditional choice for FDA Commissioner Marty McCurry, a pancreatic surgeon and public policy researcher at Johns Hopkins University. Meanwhile, Vivek Ramaswamy, founder of pharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences and Republican presidential candidate, Used to drive Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a presidential advisory committee planned for the second Trump administration.

“There are big question marks about the Trump administration and its approach to medicines in general,” Balrich says. “It’s hard to know how this will actually end.”