Thanks to everyone who has donated to help get Vasalgel™ male contraceptive to market! Since our progress announcement last week, supporters have chipped in 1/4 of the funds needed for the next study!
With encouraging results from the rabbit reversal study, the last big step before humans is a study in monkeys. But not just any monkeys – baboons, which as adult males can weigh more than 100 pounds. Baboons are frequently used for reproductive studies due to their similarity with humans. No, they don’t look a whole lot like us! But their anatomy, breeding and reproduction characteristics mean that they make an ideal model for studies of male contraceptives – before new methods are used in humans. Baboons are technically monkeys, but are much larger in size than other monkey species.
This step is key for getting approval for human studies. But none of us wants to have a new contraceptive at the expense of unnecessarily harming animals. So it will cost a little extra because we insisted on a facility where the baboons could be in large outdoor enclosures instead of tiny cages.
To read the entire newsletter: Vasalgel Oct. 25, 2013 Update.
