In a major development, Scientists at the University of Dundee were given a major cash boost of $1.7 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop the first safe and effective male contraceptive drug. Recent efforts into new contraceptive methods have been hampered for a variety of reasons, including the relatively poor understanding of human sperm biology and the lack of studies that convincingly show the key functions that sperm must carry out after leaving the male. To counter this, Dundee researchers have developed a miniaturised parallel testing system that uses a fast microscope and image-processing tools that precisely showcase the very fast movement of sperm. These pills will keep a check that men could stop their sperm from making a woman pregnant.
Chris Barratt, Professor of Reproductive Medicine in Dundee University's School of Medicine speaking on the development said, "There has been no significant change in the field of male contraception since the development of the condom. This means that much of the burden of protecting against unwanted pregnancies continue to fall upon women. We hope to address that inequality and we have already made progress, thanks to our previous round of funding received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation." Continuing further he said, "Dundee is uniquely placed to continue with this research, combining our internationally recognised expertise in male fertility research within our School of Medicine, with our knowledge in drug design based within our School of Life Sciences. By the end of this two-year period we would like to have identified a high-quality compound that we can progress to the first stages of drug development. That would be a significant step forward for the field and could potentially be the key that unlocks a new era in male contraception.”