FDA panel backs over-the-counter birth control pill, teeing up approval
CBSN
A panel of federal advisers voted Wednesday to back a drugmaker's request to sell a kind of birth control pills over-the-counter, clearing the way for the Food and Drug Administration to approve the first sale of oral contraception on U.S. store shelves without a prescription later this year.
The unanimous vote follows a two-day joint meeting of two FDA committees to weigh a submission by the Perrigo subsidiary HRA Pharma, for their proposed Opill brand product.
Opill is made up of norgestrel, a kind of "progestin-only" birth control pill that was first approved as safe and effective to be prescribed by doctors in the 1970s. This is different from birth control pills that are largely prescribed today, which are newer "combined" formulations that also use estrogen.

Another winter storm may be headed toward the East Coast of the United States this weekend, on the heels of a powerful and deadly system that blanketed huge swaths of the country in snow and ice. The effects of that original storm have lingered for many areas in its path, and will likely remain as repeated bouts of Arctic air plunge downward from Canada and drive temperatures below freezing. Nikki Nolan contributed to this report. In:

Washington — The Senate is set to take a procedural vote Thursday morning on a package to fund the remaining government agencies and programs, with less than two days to avoid a partial government shutdown. But Democrats say they won't allow the package to move forward without reforms to immigration enforcement. Caitlin Huey-Burns contributed to this report.











