A contraceptive that can provide at least three months of protection and can be administered at home is now available in the UK.
Pfizer’s Sayana Press (medroxyprogesterone acetate) was first introduced in the UK in 2013 as the first three-monthly reversible depot contraceptive, and has now had its license extended to allow self-administration by women.
The approval of the extended license by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) means that for the first time UK women have an option for long-term contraception that can be administered outside a clinical setting.
Women will need to receive training from a healthcare professional before the product can be prescribed, but they will then be able to administer Sayana at home with yearly check-ups to make sure all is well.
“This is an exciting milestone for women in the UK, and potentially in countries around the world, who might prefer this method of contraception and mode of administration,” commented Dr Salomon Azoulay, chief medical officer of Pfizer’s global established pharma business.
Sayana Press is also ether approved or pending approval in several other EU markets – including Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Ireland and the Netherlands – but Pfizer’s ultimate aim is to make the contraceptive widely available in lower-income markets around the world.
Last year, Pfizer teamed up with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) to help bring Sayana Press to women in 69 of the world’s poorest countries, with the aim of making the contraceptive available for $1 per dose to healthcare providers who prescribe the injection at no cost to the recipient.
The product has already been introduced in a number of countries including Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal and Uganda. The roll-out has been welcomed by international agencies such as the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), as having a contraceptive method that can be administered in low-resource, non-clinic setting can help give girls and women the chance to make their own decisions about whether and when to have children.
Currently, an estimated 222m women of childbearing age in lower-income countries would like to delay or prevent childbearing but do not have access to contraceptives or other family planning services.