A male contraceptive technique can't arouse the interest of pharmaceutical companies
"The executives of these big pharmaceutical companies are all middle-aged white men, and they all think that men won't accept contraceptive surgery."
Kinkar Ari, 39, who works as a part-time worker in a village 1 kilometers away from Kolkata, India, said that he and his wife don't plan to have any more children, and they can choose to have their fallopian tubes ligated. But neither of them has time for postoperative rest and recovery.
In p>212, when Ali learned from a public health worker that a researcher nearby was experimenting with a male contraceptive operation that hardly needed recovery time, he quickly signed up for the experiment. This operation is to inject a newly developed sperm-inhibiting gel into the body under local anesthesia, and it only takes 15 minutes to complete. Ali said that after the operation, he stayed in the hospital for half an hour and then walked back to his home 2.5 kilometers away. He went out to work two days later. Ali thought this little operation was awesome, and later persuaded two other men to accept the operation.
Male Contraception
Global Contraceptive Products Market
Such feedback delighted Sujoy Guha, a 76-year-old biomedical engineer. He invented the gel in 1978, but it took nearly 4 years to find a large pharmaceutical company interested in it to realize commercialization. This is the first male contraceptive technique invented in more than a century, with an effective rate of 98%. The last big pharmaceutical company engaged in the research of male contraceptive market had predicted that reversible male contraceptive technology could grab half of the global female contraceptive market ($1 billion a year) and hit the condom market with annual sales of $3.2 billion. But even so, there is only one American non-profit organization outside India developing this technology.
Suka Guha, biomedical engineer
"The executives of these big pharmaceutical companies are all middle-aged white men, and they all think that men will not undergo contraceptive surgery, which is the main reason why pharmaceutical companies are not interested in this technology." Kolinger Bannicke, a professor of gynecology, said. From 1987 to 2, when he was the head of research and development in the women's health department of Organon International, he helped the company to develop the implantable contraceptive device Implanon and the contraceptive Cerazette.
"If the executives of these companies are all women, the situation will be completely different."
The technical principle of male contraception invented by Guha is to inject polymer gel into the vas deferens of scrotum. This gel is positively charged, thus forming a barrier to negatively charged sperm, destroying the head and tail of sperm, leading to infertility. This technique is called "guided reversible sperm suppression (Risug)", that is, the gel barrier can be broken by injecting drugs again, and the sperm can enter the penis normally again.
technical principle of male contraception invented by Guha
R.S. Sharma, who is in charge of reproductive biology and pregnant women's health care at the Indian Council of Medical Research, said that this operation has no great side effects, and its contraceptive rate is comparable to that of using condoms all the time. About 54 men have undergone experimental surgery in India, and some men can continue to use contraception successfully after 13 years of surgery.
"untimely"
The United Nations points out that there are more Indian women who are willing to stop or delay pregnancy than any other country, but they have not used any contraceptive measures. Social prejudice and lack of privacy in pharmacies have led to the condom use rate in India being less than 6%.
The assistant of biomedical engineer Suka Guha is testing sperm sampling
Pfizer and Merck & Co.,Inc) have introduced female contraceptive products, but the representatives of the two companies said that the research on male contraception is not active. Schering studied male contraceptive pills in the 199s. Bayer acquired Schering in 26, and Astrid Kranz, a spokeswoman for Bayer, said that the company stopped research related to male contraception about ten years ago. Although the earlier clinical trials (injecting and implanting drugs containing hormones into the body) were "very effective, and the side effects were within the limits", kranz said that Bayer did not think that this "out-of-date" contraceptive method would have a big market.
because it costs tens of millions of dollars to pass the examination of a new contraceptive technology in the west, Guha expects an international pharmaceutical giant to like his invention. "Doing everything abroad requires a lot of money, and only the pharmaceutical industry can afford it." Guha, a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology in Koehler, Gbur, said.
R& of Guha; Lab d is located in the Indian Institute of Technology
At present, Guha has licensed this technology to the Parsemus Foundation, a non-profit organization in the United States, to help expand the market outside India. Elaine Lissner, the founder of the Palmer Summers Foundation, said in an email: The Foundation plans to produce and sell its own version of the male contraceptive product Vaselgel, and it is almost priced at cost-the cost for low-and middle-income countries is 1-12 dollars per person, and the cost for richer countries is set at about 4-6 dollars. The foundation is still seeking donations to fund expensive human trials starting in 218.
At the same time, Guha received a sum of money from the Indian government, which can be used to research and develop the large-scale production of the drug, and founded a company called IcubedG Ideas to introduce this technology to the market. Although his invention patent has expired for a long time, he is still determined to seek success, so even if he succeeds greatly, he will not benefit personally.
"Why do women have to bear the pressure of contraception? Contraception should also be equal to men and women.