Odd NIH Disclosure in Ivermectin Deception Case
On June 14, the NIH filed a Motion for Extension of Time to File Appellee’s Response Brief and Supplemental Appendix. The NIH won a motion for summary judgement and dismissal in Yim v. National Institutes of Health in the Federal District Court in the District of New Jersey in March. The case has since been appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Appellant’s Brief and Appendix were filed on May 22. By rules of the Third Circuit, the deadline for submission of Appellee’s Response is 30 days after the filing date of the Appellant Brief, or June 21. (Appellant Brief and Joing Appendix Volume 1, Joint Appendix Volume 2).
Oddly, less than a week before the NIH Brief is due, the NIH states that it is unprepared to file the NIH defense:
“Undersigned counsel’s commitments on other federal matters require us to seek this extension. Because of the amount of time needed to formulate Appellee’s response and obtain approval to finalize the responsive brief, and given the number of appellate arguments raised by the Appellant, counsel for the Appellee is respectfully requesting additional time.”
I’m not an attorney but I’m pretty sure that most clients would not be pleased to see, essentially, that their legal representation has better things to do than prepare their defense - and to announce that to the public.
As far as the prospects for this motion - all I know is that the district court was shamelessly aligned with the NIH. Hopefully the Third Circuit court of appeals is more even-handed. Actually - I’m not even sure if the Third Circuit judges have been selected for this case - since the names of the judges have not been publicly disclosed.