the first once-a-month injectable contraceptive for males - a shot in the arm for the first sex - is being developed by a Bangalore-based scientist. Raghuvir Moudgal of the Indian Institute of Science, recently said in a meeting held at the Indian National Science Academy (insa), "We have tested the formulation on 20 monkeys and it works wonderfully." Moudgal was delivering a lecture after receiving the first insa medal that has been instituted in the memory of the late scientist Yellaprada Subbarao, discoverer of several drugs including tetracycline.
Moudgal informed that his formulation is based on the substance northesterone, which is currently used as a contraceptive for women. He claimed that injecting the formulation leads to azoospermia (total absence of sperms in the semen). And once one stops the injection, fertility is resumed.In fact, the formulation can be modified to reduce the frequency of injections to once in two or three months.
According to Moudgal, studies conducted in the laboratory showed that northesterone can act as an excellent contraceptive in males at a much lower dose than it would in females. He said, while animal trials have been fairly successful, human trials would soon begin on volunteers.
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