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WASHINGTON (AP) — The primary over-the-counter birth control pill can be accessible in U.S. shops later this month, permitting American girls and teenagers to buy contraceptive remedy as simply as they purchase aspirin.
Producer Perrigo mentioned Monday it has begun delivery the remedy, Opill, to main retailers and pharmacies. A one-month provide will value about $20 and a three-month provide will value round $50, in response to the corporate’s advised retail value. It should even be bought on-line.
The launch has been carefully watched since final July, when the Meals and Drug Administration mentioned the once-a-day Opill could possibly be bought and not using a prescription. Eire-based Perrigo famous there can be no age restrictions on gross sales, just like different over-the-counter drugs.
Opill is an older class of contraceptive, generally known as minipills, that include a single artificial hormone, progestin, and usually carry fewer negative effects than extra fashionable mixture estrogen and progestin tablets.
The launch offers U.S. girls one other contraception possibility amid the authorized and political battles over reproductive well being, together with the reversal of Roe v. Wade, which has upended abortion entry throughout the U.S. Opill’s approval is unrelated to the continued courtroom battles over the abortion pill mifepristone. And anti-abortion teams have usually emphasised that they don’t oppose contraceptives to stop pregnancies.
Contraception tablets can be found and not using a prescription throughout a lot of South America, Asia and Africa.
The drug’s approval got here regardless of some concerns by FDA scientists in regards to the firm’s outcomes, together with whether or not girls with sure medical situations would perceive that they shouldn’t take the drug.
Dr. Verda Hicks, president of the American School of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, in a press release, mentioned research have proven that sufferers, together with adolescents, can successfully display themselves to make use of the tablets.
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The Related Press Well being and Science Division receives assist from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Instructional Media Group. The AP is solely chargeable for all content material.
