Welcome back to Chester's news wrap everyone. The pharmaceutical
company HR A pharma has submitted an application to the
FDA to provide the first over the counter birth control
medication available to american women. The non estrogen pill
has been approved for prescription since 1973 but it has
not been sold in the U. S. For
more than a decade. H. R. A
. Pharma says the timing of its FDA submission just
weeks after the Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to
an abortion is quote really sad coincidence joining me now
to discuss is dr Jessica Shepherd, chief medical officer
Very well, Health DR Shepherd, Welcome back to
the show. Always a pleasure. So if the
FDA approves this application, what would this mean for
women in this country? I think this is historic
as far as what women have access to now.
If you think of birth control and what we had
, you know, up to 50, maybe even
more years ago. This was really a groundbreaking woman
when women had access to something to control pregnancy.
Now with the overturning of Roe vs Wade. Like
you just discussed, this is now kind of formulating
the discussion topic of what happens now that we've repealed
some options for women when it comes to the reproductive
health is how can we improve that access when we
think of the choices that they can make and what
do they have? As far as resources and tools
in order to help them. So let's talk about
what's happening here. Will this change birth control counseling
for people that may have medical issues conditions and of
course contradictions. Now, I'm glad that you asked
this question because you actually stated it right in your
opening remarks that this is a progesterone only pill.
So not to say that there's not any risk with
progesterone only pills. But what we do typically find
is when we are talking about those medical conditions and
contra indications to birth control is usually from that estrogen
perspective of a combined birth control. So this again
decreases some of that risk. But I do think
that's a fair question when we think of health care
providers and the ability to really talk to their patients
on an individual basis for what their medical conditions are
, what their concerns are. And making sure that
they get the correct counseling when making those choices for
the reproductive health. How soon can we expect an
answer from the F. D. A. What
does this process entail exactly? Doctor Now, the
good thing is that this actually has been brought up
in 2016. This was something that was brought up
from a company of switching from the prescription form of
birth control to the over the counter prescription. So
this is not new. But when you think of
the FDA in the regulation that they go through in
order to make sure that they're substantiated the actual medication
and making sure that it's healthy for, you know
on the shelf purpose that can take anywhere for up
to nine months to maybe even a year. So
you know, we may see this in the very
near future. But I don't think it's going to
be on the shelves by tomorrow. Not Okay.
That that that makes sense. So do you anticipate
other drug companies following suit here to get FDA approval
for some kind of birth control and contraception? Absolutely
. I think when we think of birth control,
um again, now that that actually has more of
a heightened importance because of what we've gone through with
. Roe versus wade is that now we actually have
to switch the pendulum to really focusing on pregnancy prevention
. And so I think that we're going to see
more of these companies down the line even when reading
about H. R. A. Pharma is that
there are other companies that do have some of these
similar products that they do want to bring to the
shelf and having to go through FDA approval. So
I think that this is just the start of what
we'll start to see when we think of over the
counter access to reproductive care come for the company's chief
strategic innovations Officer noted this quote. And I just
want to read this out for our viewers because I
know you know, this birth control is not a
solution for abortion access. Again, that's according to
that Ceo so we're making this pill available over the
counter get abortion rights advocates a little bit more upset
. Or do you think this is a separate debate
altogether? I do think that it is a separate
debate. However, any time anything is brought up
about reproductive health and reproductive justice, it does tend
to kind of go towards that topic of abortion whether
you are, you know, for abortion or anti
abortion. So I think we're going to see some
of that dialogue resurfaced. Now. The important part
is that when it does resurface, when you think
of the actual mechanism of action of what this does
? Again, it is a birth birth control pill
. And again, not some type of abortion pill
, but we will see that struggle. I think
that no, technically, when we look at the
historic uh, proportion and foundation of birth control pills
, there's strong evidence that shows that that's what that's
for and it will remain that easy access for teenagers
. Has of course, for years now, decades
have been has been a controversial issue. What do
both sides of the baby argue when it comes to
that? And what are your thoughts there now?
That is a very strong I guess you could say
conversation topic now, even when emergency contraception was during
the Obama administration was looking to be over the counter
, there were some hesitations again on people having access
when we think of age. But now on the
flip side, if you were to think of the
argument when we think of roe versus wade being overturned
. Now we have that other side of the conversation
of what does happen now in a 14 year old
or a 12 year old or however young girl gets
pregnant. Now what do we do with that situation
? So I think these are always going to be
very opposing forces when we think of an actual conversation
. But the best part of this conversation is how
do we actually increase access we've seen historically and through
studies that the more that we have access that changes
the conversation. That decreases the stigma and allows people
to make better choices for themselves. Dr Jessica,
shepherd, Chief medical Officer very well. Health.
I say this all the time. We always appreciate
your insight. Thank you so much.