The comptroller oversees approximately $270 billion in investments from the city’s five pension funds. The funds own shares worth $1.3 billion in all five pharmaceutical retailers, according to the comptroller’s office.
New York City's pension funds own roughly $525 million in Walmart stock, $444 million in Costco, $190 million in McKesson, $117 million in Kroger and $15 million in Albertsons.
“By failing to become certified mifepristone dispensers, these pharmacy giants put both women’s reproductive health care and investors' money at risk,” Lander said in an emailed statement. He advised the companies to follow peers CVS and Walgreens, which moved to start selling the abortion pill earlier this year.
The pharmaceutical giants’ failure to publicly commit to selling the abortion pill “raises significant investor concerns'' about their responsiveness to a growing market opportunity, ability to stave off potential reputational risks and commitment to “maximizing sales and long-term shareholder value,” Lander said in the letters. Medication abortion now accounts for 63% of all abortions in the health care system, he said.
Representatives from Walmart, Kroger, Costco, Albertsons and McKesson did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
Mifepristone has not always been available for sale in pharmacies. Despite a low-risk profile, the drug has long been subject to strict federal regulations, which previously required it to be dispensed to patients in-person by a health care provider.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration loosened the dispensing rules for mifepristone last January, which allowed the pill to be distributed in pharmacies and via telemedicine. That regulatory changed spurred some pharmacies to get certified to dispense the drug, but several major retailers have yet to follow suit.
Now, pharmaceutical retailers face increasing public pressure to offer the abortion pill as courts continue to hear legal challenges threatening to undermine access to the drug. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously struck down a case attempting to roll back federal approval of mifepristone, stating that the anti-abortion physician group that brought the challenge didn’t have the grounds to file it.
The Supreme Court ruling sparked calls from elected officials to improve access to the abortion pill by getting it into more pharmacies nationwide. More than 50 U.S. Representatives, including New York Rep. Dan Goldman, sent their own warning letters to Walmart, Costco, Kroger and the owners of Safeway and Health Mart pressing them to sell the abortion pill earlier this month.