Reproductive Health
Chemical Postmaster Helps Deliver Contraceptive to
Testis
In one of the Population
Council’s reproductive health biomedical labs, biochemist and cell biologist
C. Yan Cheng and his colleagues have found a way to target a new drug, known
as Adjudin, to the testis in rats. This method prevents conception in males
without interfering with hormones, resulting in fewer side effects.
Drug Development
Meeting Explores Pricing of Pharmaceutical Products
The Population Council
convened a daylong meeting of an eminent group of academics, scientists,
representatives from the nonprofit sector, the pharmaceutical industry,
foundations, and government donor agencies, as well as practicing lawyers
and doctors—all of whom have a connection with pharmaceutical products. The
purpose of the Day of Dialogue was to explore ways of getting medicinal
products—especially those invented and developed partially or fully using
public funding—into the hands of the poor people of the world, wherever they
live.
Biomedicine
Emergency Contraception's Mode of Action Clarified
Emergency contraceptive pills, a hormonal treatment that can prevent
pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse, have been
the subject of heated debate. At issue is the method’s mechanism of
action: does it prevent the meeting of egg and sperm, or does it prevent
a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus? Recent research by
members of the Population Council’s International Committee for
Contraception Research (ICCR) and other scientists shows that the most
popular method of emergency contraception appears to work by interfering
with ovulation, thus preventing fertilization, and not by disrupting
events that occur after fertilization.
En
español: "Se esclarece mecanismo de
acción de la anticoncepción de emergencia" (PDF)
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