Ctr. for Responsible Sci. v. Gottlieb
Ctr. for Responsible Sci. v. Gottlieb
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiffs-three individuals and the Center for Responsible Science-believe that everyone who participates in a clinical-drug trial should be aware of differences in the data between preclinical animal testing and clinical human-subject experimentation. To that end, in May 2014, they submitted a Citizen Petition to the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration requesting that three specific warnings be added to the standard informed-consent materials. When the FDA denied the Petition, Plaintiffs brought this one-count Administrative *7Procedure Act suit against the current Commissioner, Scott Gottlieb. Defendant now moves to dismiss, contending that none of the Plaintiffs has standing, thus robbing the Court of subject-matter jurisdiction. For the reasons discussed below, the Court agrees and will grant the Motion, but permit Plaintiffs an opportunity to amend.
I. Background
Few understand the long and arduous road a new drug takes to finally come to market. After the drug is developed, researchers often test its safety on laboratory animals in preclinical trials. See Compl., ¶¶ 91-92. If it can clear the preclinical stage, the drug sponsor submits an investigational new-drug application to the FDA, the agency responsible for regulating research on human subjects. Id., ¶¶ 88, 93. If approved, clinical research-i.e. , testing conducted on humans rather than animals-begins. As part of its duty to protect human subjects, the FDA requires the drug sponsor to obtain "legally effective informed consent" for each participant. See
It is on this last point that Plaintiffs believe the FDA is abdicating its duty. Two of the Plaintiffs, Hal Garcia-Smith and John Tessmer, have previously participated in clinical trials and believe that informed consent should include warnings about the differences between animal and human testing. See Compl., ¶¶ 11, 15-16, 20, 24. The third individual Plaintiff, Michael Vokhgelt, lost a son as a result of his participation in a clinical trial.
On May 30, 2014, the organization and two of the individual Plaintiffs petitioned the FDA to amend its informed-consent regulation to include information about preclinical animal testing.
(9) The drug you will be given has been tested in animals and by other laboratory methods to determine whether it is likely to be safe and effective in humans. The decision to allow testing of this drug on humans relies heavily on the presumption that animal tests predict human response. Due to differences between animals and humans, animal tests may not predict whether a drug is safe and/or effective for use in humans.
(10) Some participants in clinical trials in which other investigative drugs were tested have died or have been seriously injured by the drug that was tested.
(11) The drug you will be given may later prove to be either unsafe for humans or ineffective in treating the condition for which it is being tested. You should not assume the drug will treat a medical condition you may have, because a determination of efficacy in an animal study does not necessarily predict efficacy in humans.
Compl., Exh A at 7. On April 12, 2017, the FDA denied the Petition, stating that the *8additional elements pertain to drug trials only, while the informed-consent regulations apply to all clinical trials. The Petition's warnings, therefore, "raise[d] broader concerns that make them inappropriate for inclusion in FDA's existing informed consent regulations." Compl., Exh. D at 3.
Six months later, Plaintiffs brought this suit for declaratory and injunctive relief, alleging that the FDA's denial was "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and otherwise not in accordance with law, in violation of
II. Legal Standard
In evaluating Defendant's Motion to Dismiss, the Court must "treat the complaint's factual allegations as true ... and must grant plaintiff 'the benefit of all inferences that can be derived from the facts alleged.' " Sparrow v. United Air Lines, Inc.,
To survive a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(1), Plaintiffs bear the burden of proving that the Court has subject-matter jurisdiction to hear their claims. See Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife,
III. Analysis
Contrary to what laypersons might generally believe, not every aggrieved person gets to have her day in court. To properly invoke the jurisdiction of federal courts, a plaintiff must demonstrate that she has a "case" or "controversy" within the parameters of Article III, a doctrine known as standing. At a minimum, standing requires the plaintiff to establish (1) an injury that is (2) traceable to the defendant's conduct and (3) likely redressable by the court. Lujan,
A. Individuals
The individual Plaintiffs allege that, because of the FDA's refusal to add their proposed informed-consent statements, they are either unable to participate in clinical trials or, in the case of Vokhgelt, fear that his children will need to participate in a trial without informed consent. See Compl., ¶¶ 15-16, 24, 207. Setting aside whether these are actually injuries in the Article III context, the individuals face a bigger standing obstacle: any future injury cannot be traceable to the FDA's action here.
As a preliminary matter, any past injury-i.e. , ill effects from previous trial participation-cannot be attributable to the FDA's denial of their Citizen Petition, which only occurred in April 2017. As to future injuries, what they claim harms them is a lack of information. Yet, they already have such information. As Defendant notes, because they "already possess the information they claim they need to make informed decisions[,] ... any harm they might face in the future would result from their informed decision to participate in clinical drug trials and not FDA's denial of their citizen petition." Mot. at 13. Notably, the language Plaintiffs want added to the regulation is generic and would not change with each clinical trial. That is, there is no difference between what they already know and what they would see in informed-consent materials if the FDA approved the Petition. As a result, it is difficult to imagine a scenario in which any individual would have standing here. The Court, consequently, finds that all of the individual Plaintiffs lack standing.
B. CRS
Plaintiffs next argue that CRS itself has standing to sue. Organizations can sue either on their own behalf ("organizational standing") or on behalf of their members ("representational standing"). See Scenic Am., Inc. v. U.S. Dep't of Transp.,
Caselaw for organizational standing is not a model of clarity, but this Circuit has made clear that, at a minimum, the organization must "allege 'that discrete programmatic concerns are being directly and adversely affected by' the [agency's] inaction," PETA,
CRS alleges that it has standing here "because the interests at stake are germane to [its] purposes, and FDA's response will require further extensive advocacy work on [its] part ... [,] placing a significant drain on its limited resources, causing a diversion of its resources, and the frustration of its mission." Compl., ¶ 209. Such broad allegations cannot suffice to allege standing, particularly where advocacy spending and detriment to its mission standing alone have been held not to constitute sufficient injury. See Food & Water Watch, Inc. v. Vilsack,
The Court notes that this is not a strenuous burden at the motion-to-dismiss stage, but a necessary one nonetheless. See Scenic America,
IV. Conclusion
Because none of the Plaintiffs can satisfy the constitutional requirements for Article III standing, the Court will grant Defendant's Motion to Dismiss, while permitting leave to amend. An Order to that effect will issue this same day.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- CENTER FOR RESPONSIBLE SCIENCE v. Dr. Scott GOTTLIEB
- Cited By
- 26 cases
- Status
- Published