A male contraceptive pill could enter human trials in just two months after tests on mice were successful. The pill, which is non-hormonal, blocked 99 percent of pregnancies in mice at trial stage, reports Vice.
It means the male contraceptive, medically named YCT529, is now on par with the female birth control medication. Researchers at the University of Minnesota, who invented the drug, say it could enter clinical trials as early as July this year.
The pill does not target testosterone, the male sex hormone, cutting the risk of side effects which have kept the drugs landing in pharmacies. Crucially, trials also found male mice were able to father pups four to six weeks after taking it.
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The pill targets a protein called the retinoic acid receptor alpha (RAR-a) which plays an important role in sperm formation. The researchers, led by Dr Gunda Georg, found that YCT529 could inhibit the protein alone.
She told Vice: “That’s very important—that you knock out the target that you’ve achieved the desired effect but the mice are also viable and healthy. Of course, you have to be careful with this analysis because they are mice and not humans, but nevertheless the effect was very, very promising.”
The next stage for researchers is finding out whether the pill can be effective on humans without causing side effects. According to the publication, YourChoice Therapeutics, which holds the drug's licence, is prepping documents for approvals from the US Food and Drug Administration.
As MailOnline reports, scientists have been trying since the 1950s to develop an effective male oral contraceptive. A major hurdle is that the female contraceptive works by preventing ovulation. Any male contraceptives would need to interrupt the production of millions of sperm made by men every day.
Most of the drugs undergoing clinical trials target testosterone, blocking the male sex hormone from producing healthy sperm cells, but doctors say that the testosterone-blocking action can trigger weight gain and depression.
"Targeting the male sex hormone leads to a lot of side effects such as weight gain, depression and increased risk of cardiovascular diseases,” said Abdullah Al Norman, who helped create the pill. “Men are less willing to take a birth control pill that has significant side effects. That’s why we are targeting a non-hormonal pathway to developing a male birth control pill.”
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