Berliner Boersenzeitung - Mice trial raises hopes for 'on demand' male contraceptive

EUR -
AED 4.313975
AFN 80.547545
ALL 97.434934
AMD 449.73046
ANG 2.102303
AOA 1077.171324
ARS 1492.791377
AUD 1.764031
AWG 2.116752
AZN 2.0016
BAM 1.955498
BBD 2.367734
BDT 143.357833
BGN 1.958424
BHD 0.442032
BIF 3495.35953
BMD 1.174668
BND 1.502568
BOB 8.102747
BRL 6.532923
BSD 1.172619
BTN 101.493307
BWP 15.744565
BYN 3.837607
BYR 23023.499991
BZD 2.355536
CAD 1.60865
CDF 3393.617337
CHF 0.933866
CLF 0.028651
CLP 1114.547663
CNY 8.403625
CNH 8.419418
COP 4775.561579
CRC 592.408399
CUC 1.174668
CUP 31.128712
CVE 110.247953
CZK 24.57048
DJF 208.817712
DKK 7.463496
DOP 71.148999
DZD 151.843521
EGP 57.684081
ERN 17.620026
ETB 163.190867
FJD 2.634488
FKP 0.874805
GBP 0.874465
GEL 3.18381
GGP 0.874805
GHS 12.254105
GIP 0.874805
GMD 84.57654
GNF 10176.42647
GTQ 9.000608
GYD 245.342064
HKD 9.220266
HNL 30.706252
HRK 7.537617
HTG 153.886205
HUF 396.850416
IDR 19217.339549
ILS 3.93908
IMP 0.874805
INR 101.616219
IQD 1536.162471
IRR 49468.226083
ISK 142.276286
JEP 0.874805
JMD 187.051077
JOD 0.832886
JPY 173.446879
KES 151.506573
KGS 102.553011
KHR 4697.273684
KMF 491.603168
KPW 1057.221015
KRW 1624.959912
KWD 0.358662
KYD 0.977249
KZT 639.001194
LAK 25279.09122
LBP 105069.953557
LKR 353.815291
LRD 235.113646
LSL 20.812382
LTL 3.468491
LVL 0.710546
LYD 6.330021
MAD 10.545169
MDL 19.72395
MGA 5179.199166
MKD 61.550483
MMK 2465.733848
MNT 4216.363074
MOP 9.481134
MRU 46.800763
MUR 53.342135
MVR 18.094285
MWK 2033.385588
MXN 21.777064
MYR 4.958867
MZN 75.131746
NAD 20.812382
NGN 1799.510154
NIO 43.153327
NOK 11.93722
NPR 162.388891
NZD 1.948849
OMR 0.45153
PAB 1.172619
PEN 4.153358
PGK 4.860248
PHP 67.132737
PKR 332.301418
PLN 4.249143
PYG 8783.641829
QAR 4.274539
RON 5.067641
RSD 117.131888
RUB 93.245282
RWF 1695.037905
SAR 4.407892
SBD 9.732239
SCR 16.61843
SDG 705.392672
SEK 11.192362
SGD 1.503815
SHP 0.923105
SLE 26.959075
SLL 24632.212956
SOS 670.196371
SRD 43.067458
STD 24313.263549
STN 24.496212
SVC 10.260413
SYP 15272.941179
SZL 20.804783
THB 38.024448
TJS 11.198868
TMT 4.123086
TND 3.423471
TOP 2.751195
TRY 47.634334
TTD 7.973767
TWD 34.632517
TZS 3004.935362
UAH 49.031718
UGX 4204.349902
USD 1.174668
UYU 46.972737
UZS 14837.70572
VES 141.281363
VND 30711.704452
VUV 140.295141
WST 3.217414
XAF 655.855588
XAG 0.030755
XAU 0.000352
XCD 3.1746
XCG 2.113373
XDR 0.815674
XOF 655.855588
XPF 119.331742
YER 283.036769
ZAR 20.86834
ZMK 10573.429114
ZMW 27.351771
ZWL 378.242735
  • SCU

    0.0000

    12.72

    0%

  • RBGPF

    -1.1200

    73.88

    -1.52%

  • CMSD

    0.0400

    22.89

    +0.17%

  • BCC

    1.7100

    88.14

    +1.94%

  • SCS

    0.0700

    10.58

    +0.66%

  • CMSC

    0.0550

    22.485

    +0.24%

  • NGG

    -0.0800

    72.15

    -0.11%

  • GSK

    -0.2600

    37.97

    -0.68%

  • BTI

    -0.3700

    52.25

    -0.71%

  • RIO

    -0.7300

    63.1

    -1.16%

  • JRI

    -0.0600

    13.09

    -0.46%

  • BP

    0.0700

    32.2

    +0.22%

  • RELX

    -0.9800

    52.73

    -1.86%

  • BCE

    -0.2300

    24.2

    -0.95%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0400

    13.2

    -0.3%

  • VOD

    -0.0900

    11.43

    -0.79%

  • AZN

    -1.0200

    72.66

    -1.4%

Mice trial raises hopes for 'on demand' male contraceptive
Mice trial raises hopes for 'on demand' male contraceptive / Photo: PETER PARKS - AFP/File

Mice trial raises hopes for 'on demand' male contraceptive

If women have the "morning after" pill, could men one day have an "hour before" pill?

Text size:

A new drug candidate renders male mice infertile within an hour and wears off in less than a day, an experimental study said Tuesday, potentially pointing towards a future "on-demand" male contraceptive.

The potential drug, which has not been tested in humans and remains years away from possibly becoming available, joins a growing number of male contraceptives in development.

However there are currently only two options available for men: condoms and vasectomies.

Previous drugs have struggled partly because the bar for side effects is believed to be far higher for men -- because they do not risk getting pregnant -- as well as a lack of interest from the pharmaceutical industry.

"For women, right now all the burden of contraception is on us," Melanie Balbach, a pharmacology researcher at Weill Cornell Medicine in the US, told AFP.

"We want new options," said Balbach, the lead author of the study published in Nature Communications.

The team of researchers targeted an enzyme called soluble adenylyl cyclase, which acts as the "on switch" for sperm, said study co-author Jochen Buck, also of Weill Cornell Medicine.

If the enzyme is switched off, the sperm can no longer move, he said.

Across several different tests, the researchers showed that a compound which blocks the enzyme renders mice sperm immobile in 30 minutes to an hour.

The compound was 100 percent effective in preventing pregnancy within the first two hours, dropping to 91 percent in the first three hours, the study said.

After 24 hours, the mice sperm moved like normal again.

- 'Eye-catching advantage' -

The researchers hope are aiming for a single non-hormonal pill that works in under an hour and lasts six to 12 hours, Buck said.

This would be much different to other options under development, such as a hormonal gel currently going through human trials, which all take weeks or months to start and stop working.

No side effects were noticed in the mice. Previous research has suggested that infertile men who had their soluble adenylyl cyclase enzyme permanently switched off had an increased rate of kidney stones.

Buck said this was the result of their enzyme always being off -- which would not be the case for men taking an on demand pill.

The researchers hope to hold the first trials on humans within three years, with a final product possibly up to eight years away, Buck said.

Susan Walker, an expert in contraception at the UK's Anglia Ruskin University not involved in the research, said she was a "little sceptical" a pill would actually make it to market as so many other efforts have fallen short.

But the "eye-catching advantage" of almost immediate effectiveness offered "the possibility of seeing a sexual partner take a pill," she said.

The consultancy Desire Line is working on forecasting the potential uptake of a range of male contraceptive products, according to its founder Steve Kretschmer.

"Initial estimates indicate in the United States that uptake for an on-demand pill which has quick onset of action and 1-2 days duration of action could be about triple that of Viagra when it was initially launched," he told AFP.

(L.Kaufmann--BBZ)