Synthetic birth control tests

Press, 28 February 1986, Page 29

Synthetic birth control tests

NZPA-AFP Geneva The world’s first tests of a synthetic birth-con-trol vaccine will soon begin in Adelaide, Australia, and the product could.be on sale by the mid-19905, says the World Health Organisation. Dr David Griffin, who is developing the vaccine for W.H.0., said, “The vaccine may prove to be as important a development in birth-control tech-

nology as the contraceptive pill.” The nine-month trial at Adelaide’s Flinders Medical Centre would first be conducted on 30 sterilised women to check for any side-effects and, if all went well, would be followed by tests on fertile women, W.H.O. said.

“The vaccine is based on a hormone — human

chorionic gonadrophin — which is produced soon after fertilisation and is necessary for the establishment and maintenance of early pregnancy. “It triggers an immune response that neutralises the hormone, thus interrupting the reproductive process before the fertilised egg has been successfully implanted in the womb, W.H.O. said.”

The Flinders centre was chosen because it offered the necessary facilities, and had been involved in developing the vaccine. Ohio State University in the United States has researched the vaccine during the last 10 years with aid from W.H.O. and pharmaceutical institutes.