The Future of Male Birth Control Could Be Pills, Gels and Implants
New contraceptive methods are in trials, but can companies get men to buy in?
YCT-529 in capsule form.
Photographer: Yvette Scott for Bloomberg Businessweek
“All I have is sperm,” Akash Bakshi says. “I’m just looking at sperm counts.” Every day the co-founder of YourChoice Therapeutics arrives at his startup’s office in San Francisco to do this work.
A biochemist by training, Bakshi could become the first biotech company chief executive officer to bring a hormone-free male birth control pill to market. The pill his team developed, YCT-529, works by blocking a vitamin-A-dependent protein essential for sperm growth, temporarily rendering men infertile without affecting their testosterone levels and thereby potentially introducing related side effects. Phase 1 human clinical trials showed it was well tolerated, and Bakshi says early results in Phase 2, which is focused on both safety and efficacy, are promising.