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Much of the donation was earmarked for advocacy on behalf of mifepristone, also known as RU-486, which terminates pregnancies by blocking the hormone progesterone and is often taken with the drug misoprostol.—
Harrison Smith,
Washington Post,
28 June 2023 His idea came to fruition in 1980, when a French drug company created mifepristone, then called RU-486.—
The Week Staff,
The Week,
7 May 2023 The agency’s 2000 approval of mifepristone, also known as RU-486, was controversial at the time and came after years of public debate over the drug, which had already been approved and in use in Europe.—
Jenny Jarvie,
Los Angeles Times,
7 Apr. 2023 Étienne-Émile Baulieu, the primary developer of RU-486, which is better known as mifepristone, was even more hopeful.—
Sue Halpern,
The New Yorker,
9 Mar. 2023
Word History
Etymology
Roussel-UCLAF, the drug's French manufacturer + 486, laboratory serial number