Once-daily male contraceptive pill passes initial human safety tests

By PharmaCompass

2019-03-28

Impressions: 76 Article

So far, men have had little birth-control choices other than using condoms or going in for a vasectomy. Researchers have been exploring new options, such as an injection and a topical gel.

But now, it seems that a birth control pill for men may find its way into the market over the next decade or so. The pill — 11-beta-MNTDC — has passed initial human safety tests, carried by the University of Washington and the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed), an independent biomedical research organization.

The once-daily pill suppresses levels of hormones that drive the production of sperm and testosterone in the testes. A month-long study on the pill has shown that the capsule appeared to work as a male contraceptive with no significant side-effects.

Forty healthy men (between the age of 18 and 50) enrolled for this phase one safety trial. Ten volunteers received a placebo capsule; the rest were assigned a 200mg or 400mg dose of 11-beta-MNTDC. All took one capsule daily with food for 28 days. The levels of hormones required for sperm production fell in men who took the daily capsule, suggesting their sperm counts had been significantly reduced.

The drug contains a form of progesterone that blocks the production of hormones called luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) that are needed to make sperm. However, researchers say it could be a decade before a male pill is on the market, even as they believe there is strong demand for such a pill.

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