Male birth control drug 100% effective in mice, study shows. What about humans?
Global News
An experimental drug was tested in pre-clinical trials in mice and showed 100 per cent effectiveness in preventing pregnancy, according to a new study.
An experimental new drug that briefly blocks the male sperm is being hailed as a “game changer” in the search for an elusive birth control pill for men.
The drug was tested in pre-clinical trials in mice and showed 100 per cent effectiveness in preventing pregnancy, according to a peer-reviewed study published in Nature Communications on Tuesday.
Researchers at Cornell University injected the non-hormonal drug in male mice and among the 52 pairings that they tested, not a single female mouse got pregnant.
The drug works almost like an off-on switch as the sperm movement is blocked for up to 2.5 hours by using an inhibitor to target soluble adenylyl cyclase (sAC), which is essential for sperm motility and maturation. Motility then appeared to be restored the next day.
“So the idea is they take that pill about 30 minutes before they want to have intercourse and then their fertility is protected and then about 24 to 48 hours, their fertility comes back,” Dr. Melanie Balbach, a reproduction biologist at Weill Cornell Medicine and co-author of the study, told Global News.
It is an “on-demand” approach for male contraception that is not based on hormones and is “very different” than hormonal birth control pills for women, said Balbach.
Women on birth control pills typically have to follow a regular multi-week regimen to prevent ovulation.
In the case of this drug being designed by Balbach and her colleagues, “it really hopefully can be taken as often as the men want to have intercourse,” she said.