A newly launched firm is aiming to develop what it says would be the first prescription birth control for men.
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Ohana Biosciences announced its launch Monday by Flagship Pioneering, with the goal of improving reproductive health by focusing on sperm rather than egg biology. The company was founded in 2016. The company hopes its products can improve fertility rates, deliver non-hormonal contraception and reduce pregnancy complications, inherited disease and developmental disorders. The company is running a randomized, controlled trial of its lead product, OHB035, an in vitro fertilization sperm preparation kit, in 83 participants. The company’s CEO is Amber Salzman, who has led several biotech companies.
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“As parental age increases and demographics shift, we face a growing global crisis in reproductive health, and there’s an urgent need to advance science that can tackle growing rates of infertility, inherited disease and pregnancy complications,” Flagship Pioneering CEO Noubar Afeyan said in a statement. “We specifically recruited Dr. Salzman to lead Ohana because of her deep scientific expertise, clinical development and tireless advocacy for innovative approaches to help patients.”
The company hopes its products will increase fertility rates for people undergoing assisted reproductive therapy like in vitro fertilization by reducing the number of cycles required for pregnancy and birth through enhancement of sperm ex vivo, which it also hopes will be able to improve outcomes by reducing complications and disorders.
Ohana’s male birth control drug is still in preclinical development, according to the pipeline page on its website. It says providing non-hormonal birth control for men as well as women would have the potential to reduce side effects for women while also promoting shared responsibility.
There have been a number of efforts to develop contraceptive drugs for men, such as a male equivalent of the birth control pills that women have long used. Drug therapies under development include the injectable dimethandrolone undecanoate, as well as a combination nestorone-testosterone gel, according to studies listed in the online database ClinicalTrials.gov. The therapies are respectively in Phase I and Phase II clinical development.
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