Post: #1

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/...-papua-men

BANGKOK, Thailand — On the remote Indonesian island of Papua, tribesmen have long noticed the curious effect of a shrub called “gandarusa.”

If you chew its leaves often enough, men say, your wife won’t get pregnant.

Indonesian scientists, who have transferred this folk method from the jungle to the lab, claim they can extract the shrub’s active ingredient and mass produce it as an over-the-counter pill.

If they’re right, they will accomplish what Western pharmaceutical giants have researched but failed to deliver for decades: a birth control pill for men.

“With luck, it could be released late this year, but it will probably be sold in stores early next year,” said Sugiri Syarief, the head of Indonesia’s state-run National Family Planning Coordination Board.

Researchers began analyzing gandarusa in 1988, Sugiri said. Animal and human trials began in the 1990s and the plant’s effective compound was patented in 2007.

Post: #2

Sample size is tiny, and Indonesian scientist is in most cases an oxymoron.
But it is still enough of a patriarchal society for the male pill to be allowed to hit the market, so there is hope,
possibly obstructed by the Muslim political parties who are right now trying to criminalize sex outside marriage.

Post: #3

(03-29-2013 12:15 PM)calihunter Wrote:  http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/...-papua-men

BANGKOK, Thailand — On the remote Indonesian island of Papua, tribesmen have long noticed the curious effect of a shrub called “gandarusa.”

If you chew its leaves often enough, men say, your wife won’t get pregnant.

Indonesian scientists, who have transferred this folk method from the jungle to the lab, claim they can extract the shrub’s active ingredient and mass produce it as an over-the-counter pill.

If they’re right, they will accomplish what Western pharmaceutical giants have researched but failed to deliver for decades: a birth control pill for men.

“With luck, it could be released late this year, but it will probably be sold in stores early next year,” said Sugiri Syarief, the head of Indonesia’s state-run National Family Planning Coordination Board.

Researchers began analyzing gandarusa in 1988, Sugiri said. Animal and human trials began in the 1990s and the plant’s effective compound was patented in 2007.

It's actually kind of formal.

http://www.newmalecontraception.org/indo...gandarusa/

Ray Suarez from NPR did a story on it in 2011.

http://www.elements-science.co.uk/2012/0...e-condoms/

There was similar thing in China with cottonseed oil. It was legal for a while and it helped during the "One Child" population reduction push. Then there started to be issues with potassium levels and proper levels didn't return after stopping the pill. So it has been discontinued. And this all showed up after years of use.

So expect any FDA clinical trials to go real slow based on that cottonseed experience. It gives them the excuse to drag their feet and ignore any evidence from any trials outside of the US.

From the article:
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The researchers are being supported by the Indonesian government, which hopes to have it on the market there next year (2013). Approval for other countries would take longer, depending on how much of the Indonesian research meets those countries’ study protocols. Gandarusa researchers attended the NICHD and Gates Foundation contraceptive development conference in October 2011, presented their latest results, and networked with international policymakers. The researchers are interested in international collaboration, but no Western organizations have teamed up with them so far.

We expect that given how long the approvals process would take in other countries, enterprising men outside Indonesia won’t be waiting and will be finding a way to get the pill from Indonesia (or get themselves to Indonesia) once it is on the market there.
----

There might be cash to be made. Buying those pills where it could be sold and mailing it to the United States. If it is not banned in the US then it is illegal to ship it here.

Post: #4

(03-30-2013 07:45 AM)Mark Minter Wrote:  [quote='calihunter' pid='406041' dateline='1364577316']
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/...-papua-men
If it is not banned in the US then it is illegal to ship it here.

Sorry, correction, "then it is NOT illegal to ship it here".

Post: #5

Quote:There might be cash to be made. Buying those pills where it could be sold and mailing it to the United States.

Very true, could make millions very quickly.

Post: #6

What happened in the end?

Post: #7

Any updates on this?