Abstract
A MONTHLY application of contraception has the advantage that it involves application of medication only in the event of suspected pregnancy such as delayed menses1, thereby reducing the unnecessary exposure of healthy persons to drugs. An intravaginal application of prostaglandins (PGs) has been successfully used for this purpose in 11 women1. Naturally occurring PGs need to be administered in high doses to obtain termination of pregnancy by the oral route, however, and the effective doses have side effects such as vomiting, nausea and diarrhoea1. It would be desirable to develop an analogue of natural PG active orally in doses which have no undesirable side effects, and with this rationale in mind we developed a C-22 derivative (Fig. 1) of PGF2α—ICI 74,205 which appears to be some 20 times more potent orally than the parent PG in terminating early pregnancy in hamsters.
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References
Karim, S. M. M., Contraception, 3, 173 (1971).
Labhsetwar, A. P., J. Endocrinol, 53, 201 (1972).
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LABHSETWAR, A. New Antifertility Agent—an Orally Active Prostaglandin—ICI 74,205. Nature 238, 400–401 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1038/238400b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/238400b0
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