Read parts one and two of this series.

Are abortion pill companies intentionally turning a blind eye to the lack of accountability among rule-breaking abortion pill prescribers for the sake of profit?

Abortion pill manufacturers have thus far failed to decertify bad actors who are out of compliance with the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) REMS safety system, which increases abortion pill sales — and therefore, increases the companies' overall profits.

Key Takeaways:

• A new report from the HELP Committee found that abortion pill sales result in nearly $20M in annual revenue for Mifeprex manufacturer, Danco Laboratories, which makes only that drug.

• Danco has been shrouded in secrecy for decades, refusing to disclose "highly sensitive" information like profits and even manufacturing location. However, a legal deposition in 2022 showed that "Danco’s investors had a 452 percent return on investment over 23 years," and it has also been revealed that it manufactures the drug in Spain.

• Danco has claimed that its "annual revenue varies, but is less than $20 million per year..."

• In its report, the HELP Committee blamed Danco for a lack of accountability, which placed profit above the health and safety of women.

The Details:

An August 2026 report for the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee — led by Senators Bill Cassidy , Steve Daines, James Lankford, Cindy Hyde-Smith, and Lindsey Graham — found that abortion pills accounted for nearly $20 million dollars of revenue annually for Danco Laboratories, one of the abortion pill's (mifepristone) three manufacturers.

Danco has only one product: the name-brand abortion pill Mifeprex, approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000.

Mifepristone Investigative Report

The report, "Mifepristone Without Guardrails: An Investigation Into How Chemical Abortion Drug Makers Are Putting Mothers and Babies At Risk," stated that information was requested of Danco and GenBioPro "as to the revenues and profits the companies are making," and though "[b]oth sponsors declined to provide specific information as to their financials... Danco did share some high-level insights."

The Senators wrote in a letter dated March 25, 2026 (included in the report): "Mifeprex is Danco’s only product, and Danco has stated that it would have to close its business if it was prevented from selling this drug because the company would no longer generate revenue." The letter was addressed to Abby Long, Vice President of Marketing and Operations at Danco.

That letter continued that the "level of secrecy" surrounding the manufacturing of Mifeprex by Danco is "unusual given that most pharmaceutical companies are far more transparent, including disclosing where their drugs are manufactured, their sales numbers, their leadership teams, and other basic information about their business."

Live Action News also previously documented that Danco has remained an elusive and highly secretive company for more than two decades.

The company’s executives, investors, and office locations are kept hidden, and Danco's manufacturing location sites were largely undisclosed until recently, when a false claims act lawsuit forced the company to publicly disclose that the drug is manufactured in Spain.

The Senators also keyed in, writing:

The Washington Post once characterized Danco as “[s]ecretive and obscure” and “one of the most enigmatic companies in the pharmaceutical industry.”

Some of Danco’s financial information became public during protracted litigation in 2022 involving private equity-backed investors seeking control of the company.

In a deposition in that case, Danco’s Chief Financial Officer, Angelia Van Vranken, stated that Mifeprex had “been extremely profitable,” that Danco’s investors had a 452 percent return on investment over 23 years, and that one of Danco’s top investors and executive chair of the board of directors, W. Bradley Daniel, had earned over $10.3 million in proxy fees alone.

"It is concerning that it took a court battle amongst private equity investors to reveal some of Danco’s substantial profits," the report authors stated.

Danco's Response

Abortion pill sales have increased year after year, so it is unsurprising to learn that in the first years after approval, revenue was lower than today.

Given the removal of the in-person dispensing to allow for pharmacy and mail order, the company's revenue has increased exponentially over the past five years to somewhere close to $20 million annually.

A "confidential" letter sent from Hogan Lovells US LLP, which represented Danco to the committee, read in part (emphases added):

Danco is a private company and is not able to produce this information as it is highly sensitive confidential commercial information. Annual revenue varies, but is less than $20 million per year...

Danco is not able to provide quarterly sales information, because it is highly sensitive and confidential commercial information. As provided in the April 17, 2026 Response, FDA has reported that approximately 7.5 million women have used mifepristone (both Mifeprex and generic products) in the United States for medical termination of pregnancy as of December 31, 2024.

Since approval in 2000, annual total sales revenue has ranged from $1 million to $26 million with an average of $16 million.

In each of the past five years, annual sales revenue has not exceeded $20 million.

Taxpayer Funds and Royalties

Live Action News previously uncovered documents indicating that the Population Council, a non-profit (which was founded by eugenicists, and which brought the abortion pill to the U.S. and then created manufacturer Danco Laboratories to market the drug known as mifepristone) was originally set up to receive royalties from sales of the abortion pill.

While it is unclear whether the Population Council continues to profit from the abortion pill via a royalty payment, it is undeniable that U.S. taxpayers are subsidizing its work. A review of the organization’s annual reports reveal the following:

• 2024: 18% from U.S. Government taxpayers - 6% royalties (Population Council no longer listed dollar amounts in this report, instead disclosing percentages of income from taxpayers and royalties.)

• 2020-21: $3.8 million from taxpayers - $4.1 million royalties

• 2019: $3.5 million from taxpayers -$23 million royalties

• 2018: $39.5 million from taxpayers – $22.7 million royalties (Note: A milestone payment of $20 million tied to a product licensing agreement was recognized as revenue in 2018.)

• 2017: $37.7 million from taxpayers – $11 million royalties

• 2016: $38.6 million from taxpayers – $4 million royalties

• 2015: $35.6 million from taxpayers – $2.8 million royalties

• 2014: $37.8 million from taxpayers  – $2.4 million royalties

• 2013: $37.1 million from taxpayers –  $2.2 million royalties

• 2012: $34.8 million from taxpayers – $6.5 million royalties

• 2011: $40.8 million from taxpayers – $8 million royalties

• 2010: $27 million from taxpayers – $11.1 in royalties (Note: In February 2010, the Council signed a licensing agreement with Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc., granting them the North American rights to the contraceptive vaginal ring. This agreement led to a 48% increase in the Council’s royalty income for 2010.)

• And more

The Population Council is funded by the same billionaire pro-abortion philanthropists who seeded Danco, namely the Buffett Foundation (Warren Buffett) and the Packard Foundation — and others.

Profiting From Lack of Accountability

Abortion pill manufacturers are obligated to ensure that the FDA's safety rules are followed by prescribers of the drug and by pharmacies dispensing the drug, yet as Live Action News has documented multiple times, this does not appear to be taking place.

Sponsors of the drug are tasked with training, certifying, and decertifying non-compliant prescribers.

Mifepristone sponsors must, according to the FDA

Ensure that healthcare providers who prescribe their mifepristone are specially certified in accordance with the requirements…and de-certify healthcare providers who do not maintain compliance with certification requirements. 

Instead, when unaccountable prescribers break the rules, virtually none are being decertified, and no one is holding prescribers accountable for breaking the FDA's safety rules.

Danco claimed to have certified 5,250 prescribers and 5,297 pharmacies (decertifying only two).

Committee members noted this lack of decertification, writing that "[I]t is no wonder that Danco has never decertified a single prescriber when it claims to never take steps to confirm that the prescribers are actually meeting the requirements they attest to."

Profits above Health and Safety of Women

HELP Committee senators zeroed in on this and called out Danco's millions in profit as a potential motivation to not decertify bad actors like Planned Parenthood which sells the drug "just in case" of a pregnancy, flouting the drug's REMS safety requirements.

In its report, the Committee blamed the manufacturer for a lack of accountability, which placed profit above the health and safety of women, writing:

With chemical abortions provided by online clinics now estimated to account for 27 percent of all abortions in the U.S. (about 160,000 abortions in the first half of 2025), Danco must immediately implement the Mifepristone REMS Program requirements and de-certify prescribers who do not comply.

By willingly refusing to do so, Danco is putting its profits above the health and safety of women and children.

The Timeline:

1994: With encouragement of the Clinton administration, Roussel-Uclaf assigned the U.S. rights of marketing and distribution of the abortion pill (known then as RU-486) to the eugenics proponents at the Population Council. The right to distribute the drugs was later handed over to Danco Laboratories, a sub-licensee of the Population Council.

1996: Population Council (funded in part with millions of dollars of investments from the Buffett and Packard Foundations) submitted its application for the drug to the FDA, and a series of clinical trials began.

2000: FDA approves abortion pill.

2019: Trump FDA approves GenBioPro as first generic abortion pill maker.

2025: Trump FDA approves Evita Solutions as second generic drug maker.