UK Begins Test Of Male Birth Control Pill; 16 Men Take Part In First Trial

London: Sixteen British men took part in phase 1 trial of a first-of-its-kind non-hormonal male birth control pill.

According to a Sky News report, Quotient Sciences — a drug development company based in Nottingham – began the trail of YCT-529 this week.

The hormone-free YCT-529 prevents sperm production by blocking access to vitamin A.

Old studies showed that depriving mice, rats and monkeys of vitamin A can cause infertility.

Researchers in the UK hope that the new pill will give men more power to prevent unwanted pregnancies. The responsibility for preventing pregnancy has mainly been on women for centuries. While male options are limited to withdrawal, condoms and vasectomy to prevent unwanted pregnancies, women can choose from the pill, coil, contraceptive injection and female condoms or diaphragms.

YCT-529 has been found to be 99% effective and 100% reversible, with no side effects, according to its manufacturer YourChoice Therapeutics, based in San Francisco.

“YCT-529 blocks a protein — not hormones — to prevent sperm production. We believe this will be more attractive to men, most of whom view pregnancy prevention as a shared responsibility even despite today’s limited contraceptive options, which are permanent or only moderately effective. The dearth of options reinforces the centuries-old view that pregnancy prevention is a woman’s responsibility. It’s not, and we’re committed to advancing the first hormone-free birth control pill for men that’s effective, convenient, and temporary,” co-founder and CEO of YourChoice Therapeutics Akash Bakshi said in a statement.

“The last innovation in contraception was the birth control pill for women, and that’s more than 60 years ago. The world is ready for a male contraceptive agent, and delivering one that’s hormone-free is simply the right thing to do given what we know about the side effects women have endured for decades from the pill,” University of Minnesota’s College of Pharmacy Gunda Georg, who developed the pill, told The Independent.

“We consciously chose to inhibit the vitamin A signalling pathway in the testis because nearly 100 years of research has validated this pathway and shows that infertility can be reversed easily,” she added.

According to Forbes, the clinical trial will end in June 2024.