Centchroman...a non-steroidal, oral BC pill

I thought you all might be interested in this, since it seems to come up quite often...

I think it would be perfect for my GF, as she's not a big fan of the sides she gets with the pill (though they seem to be minimal with Yasmin), but no doc she has seen thinks she's an appropriate candidate for an IUD... too young, not married.

Check it out... Centchroman

Later...

JJ

no sides and you only take it bi-weekly...

can't beat that...

however there are positive aspects of steroidal BC pills, like less acne and bigger boobs, which would surely be missed with the use of this stuff.

It sounds like its got a lot of potential, but the data on the website suggests that only two human trials have been done so far. I wouldn't put it in my body until a lot more research had been done and possible long term effects had been studied.

Interesting.

W6

Yes, it's all true. Since that article was published, there have now been several hundreds of thousands of women in India that have used it without any noteworthy side effects. The only reason I can think of why it's not more widely used may be more to do with religious and politcal issues rather than efficacy and convenience. It is, after all, basically an abortion pill, and it wasn't developed or patented to any of the "big player" pharmaceutical companies. However, it has been trialed well enough ( a lot more than two human trials VLC) that if you knew someone in India that could forward some on to you, I would think it an adequate (maybe better) replacement for standard western OCs.

??? Try "ormeloxifene", also marketed as Saheli and Choice-7. I think you'll find that, aside from being a low risk abortificant, it also has intriguing potential as a treatment for estrogen receptor positive breast cancer (less toxic than tamoxifen), or even prevention???

Bumping this.

Oh yeah.

Thanks Ceebs for the bump!

Damn FDA!

Cumbersome regulatory laws causing problems for export’
By A Correspondent
Kochi

Cumbersome regulatory laws stood in the way of exporting high quality pharmaceutical products being developed in some ‘partner’ countries, according to delegates who attended the three-day international meet on ‘Health commodity security’ held last month.

A number of manufacturers in the partner countries make high quality pharmaceutical products, but there are often trade barriers to their export to other partner countries due to the perception that US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or European approval were needed, according to Dr Martha Campbell, co-director of the Centre for Entreprenuership in International Health and Development, School of Public Health, University of California.

Allowing commodities to flow through local commercial markets and through public sector services was important to expand the availability of drugs and to enable governments focus their resources on people who need them the most, she said at the meet.

According to G Rajamohan, chairman of the public sector Hindustan Latex Ltd, India had developed the world’s first non-steroidal contraceptive pill ‘centchroman’ after research and clinical trials lasting 22 years. The once-a-week oral pill has been effectively used in the country for the past 10 years. But it has not been exported to other developing countries due to the regulatory laws and non-approval of the drug from the US FDA, he said.

This problem stood in the way of potential life saving developments in the field of microbicides which are badly needed to enable women to protect themselves from HIV infection, Dr Campbell said.

Prof Nick White of the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Oxford University, pointed out that though half of the recent anti-malaria drugs were highly efficacious, it was beyond the reach of many needy developing nations due to the regulatory process of the US and European countries and blamed the WHO for this.

Delegates also expressed concern at the high cost of medicines in most of the developing countries, making its affordability difficult.

Dr J C lule, executive director, Uganda National Drug Authority and P Nahabwe, head of Economic Monitoring and Evaluation Uganda Population Secretariat, said Uganda spends US$ seven per capita on health and US$ 100,000 per year for treatment of HIV-Aids.

According to the delegates, even the reduction in the cost of aids drugs to around used 190 per month, which was proposed by some multinational companies, only allows about two percent of aids patients gain access to this treatment.

‘Partners’ (Partners in Population and Development) is a Dhaka-based inter-governmental alliance of 16 developing countries. (PTI)

http://www.expresshealthcaremgmt.com/20010831/hospinews8.htm