Indian ‘male pill’ said to be blocked by pharma firms making billions with female pills
The fact that there’s an imminent launch of the first new male contraceptive in over a century ought to bea big news. And it would be even bigger when it’s learnt that the contraceptive comes from a small Indian university startup than a big company.
Unfortunately, now there’s a glitch to this story- big pharma companies that are trying to block the launch because they fear they would lose the multi-billion dollar market for female contraceptives. This aspect of the story has been reported by the British media website, independent.co.uk.
Struggles galore for the inventor
The creator of the new male contraceptive has already faced his fair share of resistance with the invention that has been ready for over a decade. Consistent interference from the global pharma lobby has pushed back the launch so far, claims its inventor, the 76 year old Prof. Sujoy Guha.
In fact, Guha’s struggles were so much that due to the economic loss he sustained due to the delay with the launch, he had to sell his flat in Delhi.
The one-time method devised by Guha is completely reversible (To read more about Guha’s invention, check out our report on the same).
But now that he is at the cusp of seeing his invention being launched(the drug’s called Risug) he faces the might of the big pharma companies that want to foil the plan for him. Yet again.
The money facts behind it
It’s said that a new birth control method for men could garner at least half of the $10 bn market for female contraceptives around the world. It could also get a decent slice of the $3.2 bn annual condom sales. Businesses that are in these sectors include such giants as Pfizer, Bayer and Merck.
The new reversible procedure costs as low as $10 in poor nations- making it a potential gamechanger in condom-averse nations like India. This also negates the ongoing costs of condoms or female birth control pills that are usually taken daily.
Big pharmas not keen on male fertility control
Research into male fertility control doesn’t seem to be high on the agendas of big pharma companies.
Bayer, for instance stopped all R & D for the same around a decade back, according to company spokeswoman, Astrid Kranz.
There was an earlier clinical trial done by Bayer which involved administering hormones via injection and an implant. It was found to be “efficient, with a tolerable side effect profile.” However, the drug-maker wasn’t convinced that the “inconvenient” regimen would find enough acceptance in the market.
For Merch and Pfizer as well, male contraception isn’t a field of active research. Both the companies sell products aimed at female fertility control.
It’s estimated that about $100m and 10 years would be required to bring a hormone based male birth control pill to the market. That’s a low-priority undertaking for pharma executives, according to Coelingh Baebbink, founder of Pantarhei Biosceince which develops new drugs for women’s health applications.
This question of money is something that Guha is only too aware of.
“In doing anything abroad, quite substantial money is required, and that can only come from the pharmaceutical industry,” Guha, who works out of IIT, Kharagpur said.
As the pharma industry showed nothing but disinterest to his invention, Guha went ahead and licensed the technology to a US-based non-profit, Parsemus Foundation. Guha hopes that this move would help create a market outside India.
According to Elaine Lissn, the foundation’s founder, Parsemus is making its own version-Vasalgel which it plans to manufacture and distribute at $10 to $20 per person in low and middle income nations and $400 to $600 per person in wealthier nations.
Moving ahead, without big pharma
The California based foundation now seeks donations to fund costly human trials which would start next year after a study done on 16 rhesus monkeys was published last month. The study showed that Vasalgel prevented conception while the primates fraternized with females for 5 to 24 months.
Meanwhile, Guha has registered a startup through which he is trying to introduce the technology in India. A method to mass produce has been developed using a government grant. Post this, he has leased space in a New Delhi industrial zone for the purpose.
Hopefully, things would finally fall in place for Guha, and also for those in need of such an invention. And going by the numbers, that’s a whole lot of people.
Image credits: independent.co.uk