Developing New Contraceptives

There are numerous reasons to hasten the introduction of new and improved contraceptivesâ€"from health concerns about the pill to the continuing medical liability crisis. Yet, U.S. organizations are far from taking a leadership position in funding, researching, and introducing new contraceptivesâ€"in fact, the United States lags behind Europe and even some developing countries in this field. Why is research and development of contraceptives stagnating? What must the nation do to energize this critical arena? This book presents an overall examination of contraceptive development in the United Statesâ€"covering research, funding, regulation, product liability, and the effect of public opinion. The distinguished authoring committee presents a blueprint for substantial change, with specific policy recommendations that promise to gain the attention of specialists, the media, and the American public. The highly readable and well-organized volume will quickly become basic reading for legislators, government agencies, the pharmaceutical industry, private organizations, legal professionals, and researchersâ€"everyone concerned about family planning, reproductive health, and the impact of the liability and regulatory systems on scientific innovations.

There are numerous reasons to hasten the introduction of new and improved contraceptives--from health concerns about the pill to the continuing medical liability crisis. Yet, U.S. organizations are far from taking a leadership position in funding, researching, and introducing new contraceptives--in fact, the United States lags behind Europe and even some developing countries in this field. Why is research and development of contraceptives stagnating? What must the nation do to energize this critical arena? This book presents an overall examination of contraceptive development in the United States--covering research, funding, regulation, product liability, and the effect of public opinion. The distinguished authoring committee presents a blueprint for substantial change, with specific policy recommendations that promise to gain the attention of specialists, the media, and the American public. The highly readable and well-organized volume will quickly become basic reading for legislators, government agencies, the pharmaceutical industry, private organizations, legal professionals, and researchers--everyone concerned about family planning, reproductive health, and the impact of the liability and regulatory systems on scientific innovations.

More than a quarter of pregnancies worldwide are unintended. Between 1995 and 2000, nearly 700,000 women died and many more experienced illness, injury, and disability as a result of unintended pregnancy. Children born from unplanned conception are at greater risk of low birth weight, of being abused, and of not receiving sufficient resources for healthy development. A wider range of contraceptive options is needed to address the changing needs of the populations of the world across the reproductive life cycle, but this unmet need has not been a major priority of the research community and pharmaceutical industry. New Frontiers in Contraceptive Research: A Blueprint for Action, a new report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, identifies priority areas for research to develop new contraceptives. The report highlights new technologies and approaches to biomedical research, including genomics and proteomics, which hold particular promise for developing new products. It also identifies impediments to drug development that must be addressed. Research sponsors, both public and private, will find topics of interest among the recommendations, which are diverse but interconnected and important for improving the range of contraceptive products, their efficacy, and their acceptability.

The "contraceptive revolution" of the 1960s and 1970s introduced totally new contraceptive options and launched an era of research and product development. Yet by the late 1980s, conditions had changed and improvements in contraceptive products, while very important in relation to improved oral contraceptives, IUDs, implants, and injectables, had become primarily incremental. Is it time for a second contraceptive revolution and how might it happen? Contraceptive Research and Development explores the frontiers of science where the contraceptives of the future are likely to be found and lays out criteria for deciding where to make the next R&D investments. The book comprehensively examines today's contraceptive needs, identifies "niches" in those needs that seem most readily translatable into market terms, and scrutinizes issues that shape the market: method side effects and contraceptive failure, the challenge of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, and the implications of the "women's agenda." Contraceptive Research and Development analyzes the response of the pharmaceutical industry to current dynamics in regulation, liability, public opinion, and the economics of the health sector and offers an integrated set of recommendations for public- and private-sector action to meet a whole new generation of demand.

The "contraceptive revolution" of the 1960s and 1970s introduced totally new contraceptive options and launched an era of research and product development. Yet by the late 1980s, conditions had changed and improvements in contraceptive products, while very important in relation to improved oral contraceptives, IUDs, implants, and injectables, had become primarily incremental. Is it time for a second contraceptive revolution and how might it happen? Contraceptive Research and Development explores the frontiers of science where the contraceptives of the future are likely to be found and lays out criteria for deciding where to make the next R&D investments. The book comprehensively examines today's contraceptive needs, identifies "niches" in those needs that seem most readily translatable into market terms, and scrutinizes issues that shape the market: method side effects and contraceptive failure, the challenge of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, and the implications of the "women's agenda." Contraceptive Research and Development analyzes the response of the pharmaceutical industry to current dynamics in regulation, liability, public opinion, and the economics of the health sector and offers an integrated set of recommendations for public- and private-sector action to meet a whole new generation of demand.

This data booklet highlights estimates of the prevalence of individual contraceptive methods based on the World Contraceptive Use 2019 (which draws from 1,247 surveys for 195 countries or areas of the world) and additional tabulations obtained from microdata sets and survey reports. The estimates are presented for female and male sterilisation, intrauterine device (IUD), implant, injectable, pill, male condom, withdrawal, rhythm and other methods combined.

By all indicators, the reproductive health of Americans has been deteriorating since 1980. Our nation is troubled by rates of teen pregnancies and newborn deaths that are worse than almost all others in the Western world. Science and Babies is a straightforward presentation of the major reproductive issues we face that suggests answers for the public. The book discusses how the clash of opinions on sex and family planning prevents us from making a national commitment to reproductive health; why people in the United States have fewer contraceptive choices than those in many other countries; what we need to do to improve social and medical services for teens and people living in poverty; how couples should "shop" for a fertility service and make consumer-wise decisions; and what we can expect in the futureâ€"featuring interesting accounts of potential scientific advances.