Gynetics, Inc. announced last Wednesday that it will market a “morning-after pill” in the U.S. They are the first company to do so since the FDA approved the use of six brands of birth control pills for emergency contraception last February.
The FDA’s decision to approve the drug was based on years of safe and effective use by over four million European women, and Princeton’s Office of Population Research, who convinced the FDA that high rates of unplanned pregnancies and abortions would go down drastically. Dr. James Trussel of the OPR said that for every 100 women who had unprotected sex during the second or third week of their menstrual cycle, eight would become pregnant. Use of emergency contraception would reduce that number to two.
Gynetics, Inc. will package regular birth control pills specifically for the purpose of emergency contraception, something that other U.S. birth control manufacturers have refused to do, citing fear of litigation and political backlash.
