Seife v. FDA, No. 17-3960, 2019 WL 1382724 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 27, 2019) (Furman, J.)

Seife v. FDA, No. 17-3960, 2019 WL 1382724 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 27, 2019) (Furman, J.)

Re:  Request for records concerning testing and approval process for Exondys 51, drug created by Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc.

Disposition:  Terminating current motions

• Litigation Considerations:  The court finds that "given the wait for the Supreme Court, the current motions will be administratively terminated."  "The Court is reserving judgment on those motions pending the Supreme Court's decision in Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media, which concerns the meaning of 'confidential' in FOIA Exemption 4."  The court does note that "whatever the Supreme Court may decide in Food Marketing Institute, the Court is persuaded that [plaintiff] is entitled to at least some relief on the ground that the FDA (at Sarepta's request) improperly redacted information that is already public."  "Specifically, in response to [plaintiff's] line-by-line challenges to the sample redactions, Sarepta conceded that over half the sample pages – 54% by [plaintiff's] calculation – included improper redactions of public information; 12% of the pages with challenged redactions have been unredacted altogether."  "Accordingly, Sarepta is ordered to re-review its redactions to the full FOIA production in accordance with this Memorandum Opinion and Order; to unredact any publicly available information; and to provide the revised redactions to the FDA."