Male Contraception Update
July 2006 Volume 1, Issue 4


**********In this issue**********

1. IVD trial: Minnesota site almost ready; West Coast site needed
2. RISUG: Manufacturing difficulties and new partnership
3. Hormonal methods: Moving towards better testosterone formulations
4. Male contraceptive research hits the print media
5. Make a difference: Help test our new survey

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1. IVD trial: Minnesota site almost ready; West Coast site needed

Researchers are preparing for enrollment in their 90-man FDA-approved
study of this long-term contraceptive. The Minneapolis/St. Paul site
is nearly ready to start enrolling men. But there's bad news too: the
Seattle site has fallen through! The researchers are working to set
up a new site, as they've had lots of inquiries from men on the west
coast. So they're hunting for a great vasectomy doctor in Seattle,
Portland, San Francisco, or Los Angeles who has the skills and setup
to be a clinical trial investigator. They have a couple leads, and we
hope to hear good news soon.

Meanwhile, if you live in the Great Lakes area and are interested in
the IVD as an alternative to vasectomy, you may want to reserve your
spot in the Minneapolis study sooner rather than later, as they've
gotten a fair amount of interest. This could be a nice alternative to
vasectomy for a man who doesn't want any more children. It's a
"kinder, gentler" vasectomy with a possibility of a greater chance of
reversibility, since the plugs can be taken out more easily than a vas
deferens can be stitched back together.

Read more about how the IVD works and what's known (and not known)
about reversal: http://www.malecontraceptives.org/methods/shug.php

If you're interested in trying the IVD in this trial, contact Janelle
Antil, Clinical Affairs Manager for the Shepherd Medical Company
IVDinfo@....


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2. RISUG: Manufacturing difficulties and new partnership

Take one part styrene and one part maleic anhydride. Purify them a
jillion times, then add ethyl acetate in a nitrogen atmosphere. Zap
the whole thing to fuse it all together. Now do a bunch more
purification, filtering, and drying steps, all the while keeping
mountains of paperwork about exactly what you're doing and paying a
whole staff of inspectors to watch over everything. Now mix that
powder with the purest DMSO and figure out how to get the resulting
extremely thick goo into thousands of tiny, tiny syringes while
keeping everything sterile.

Turns out making RISUG isn't so easy! RISUG developers got approval
this spring to re-open their clinical study and enroll hundreds of
additional men, but they're STILL trying to get the actual stuff
mass-produced (which takes more effort than making it in the lab).
There's hope, though: recognizing the potential importance of a
long-term contraceptive such as RISUG, a respected NGO which
specializes in technology advancement has offered to partner with the
Indian government in moving the manufacturing forward and planning a
strategy that will minimize such delays in the future.

Once the clinical study beings again, researchers will enroll only men
living near the trial sites in India. If you live outside India and
would like RISUG to be available sooner rather than later, read on for
how you can make a difference.


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3. Hormonal methods: Moving toward better testosterone formulations

One of the biggest obstacles in creating a hormonal male contraceptive
is the limited number of effective testosterone formulations.
Testosterone comes in patches, gels, implants and injections -- but
not as a pill.

Researchers have improved injected testosterone formulations over the
years -- they now deliver steady doses of testosterone over 3 months.
At a recent conference, one of the most respected research groups in
this field announced results from over 8 years of working with a
long-acting, injectable testosterone, testosterone undecanoate. They
reported that the men in their study had healthy prostates and
experienced an increase in bone density:
http://www.abstracts2view.com/endo/view.php?nu=ENDO06L_P2-547

We'll keep you posted on further developments.


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4. Male contraceptive research hits the print media

After increasing coverage online, male contraceptive research is
starting to show up in the print media as well. Glamour magazine
mentioned RISUG, and doctors throughout Canada got to read about male
contraceptive advances as front page news in the National Review of
Medicine, a bi-weekly newspaper for Canadian physicians. The story
covered the pros and cons of hormonal approaches, plus RISUG, the IVD,
and even one of the neglected heat methods. You can read it online:
http://www.nationalreviewofmedicine.com/issue/2006/06_15/3_advances_medicine01_1\
1.html

Keep an eye out for a story in Men's Health magazine, and some words
about male contraceptive research from the advice columnist in Playboy!


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5. Make a difference: Help test our survey

We need you to test-drive our survey! The Male Contraception
Coalition is in the process of launching a new advocacy campaign to
turn the heads of policymakers and pharmaceutical company executives.
There will be a short survey on MaleContraceptives.org that will start
quantifying the size of the potential market for new male
contraceptives. You will also be able to tell the policymakers and
execs why you think new male contraceptives are important by sending
your personal story. We have a draft survey and want to run it by men
and women to see if it's well-designed. Got a minute to give us your
two cents? Send an e-mail to info@....


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***Editors***

Elaine Lissner, Director of the Male Contraception Information Project
(MCIP)
MCIP is entirely nonprofit and works in three areas: raising public
awareness of promising nonhormonal male contraceptives, advocating
increased and expedited government research, and serving as a resource
for journalists who wish to write about the subject.

Kirsten Thompson, Director of the Male Contraceptive Coalition (MCC)
The Coalition's objectives are to speed the development of new male
contraceptives through increased legislative and institutional
support, to raise funds for applied male contraception research and
development, and to educate the public about the work of the research
community.