http://www.canada.com/health/story.html?id=2d83e53b-46ce-45d4-a53c-67482e7c5ebc


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U.S. Company hopes to launch world's first implantable male contraceptive

Camille Bains
Canadian Press

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

VANCOUVER (CP) - A private American company hopes to revolutionize
birth control by launching the world's first implantable male
contraceptive.

Dr. Neil Pollock, co-founder of Shepherd Medical Company, told a news
conference Monday that the Intra Vas Device, or IVD, is less invasive
than a vasectomy but just as effective. "We feel that we have the
potential to make a huge impact on the future of contraception in the
world," said Pollock, co-founder of the company, as he showed off the
2.5-centimetre hollow silicone plug.

Men have limited options when it comes to contraception and the IVD
would shift the burden of birth control from women to men, he said.

Pollock presented slides showing the insertion of the IVD into a man's
vas deferens tubes, which transport sperm to the penis.

Several clinical trials on rats, primates and humans have shown that
the IVD effectively stops the flow of sperm, said Pollock, who's from
Vancouver.

Normal sperm flow would resume after the device is removed, he said,
compared to reversing a vasectomy, which lowers the chance of
pregnancy to about 60 per cent.

Pollock, who specializes in performing vasectomies, said the IVD would
be implanted in about seven minutes as an outpatient procedure under
local anesthetic at a cost of $1,000 US.

A $1.4-million US grant from the National Institutes of Health in the
U.S. has paved the way for a further study on humans in Seattle later
this year, pending approval from the Food and Drug Administration of
modifications to the IVD.

The company hopes to have the device on the market in 2007.

"The European market we're thinking of entering first, with England
being a good choice," Pollock said, adding stricter regulations in
Canada and the United States would mean the North American launch
could happen a year later.

Research teams in several countries have embarked on the journey to
produce a male contraceptive since the birth control pill for women
was introduced about five decades ago.

Dr. Timothy Rowe, director of the Centre for Reproductive Health at
the University of British Columbia, said the burden of responsibility
isn't about to shift to men with the advent of any new male contraceptive.

"Men are more squeamish than women about these things so you've got a
tough sell," said Rowe, who edited a section on the future
developments in contraception for the Journal of Obstetrics and
Gynecology of Canada last year.

He said the IVD was not on the list of contraceptives.

"You've got to convince guys that they want to do this," Rowe said,
adding men "don't want anyone mucking around down there.

"You'd have to be so confident that this thing is not going to cause
any pain, it's not going to affect their sex life, it's not going to
have any harmful effects."

Women are much more tuned in to knowing about contraceptives, and
unless men take responsibility for birth control, they don't represent
a viable target group for the IVD, Rowe said.

However, the fact that men are so limited in their choice of
contraceptives means some could opt for the device because they're
even more squeamish about having a vasectomy, he said.