FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — L.R. Fox is the CEO of a birth control company, so you’ll have to excuse the excitement when he starts talking about, well, birth control. It’s “the holy grail,” he says. A fertility “light switch” with “no notable side effects.”
It is male birth control. Fox is the CEO of the Flagstaff biotech startup NEXT Life Sciences, which is testing what they call “Plan A” – a non-hormonal, long-lasting and reversible birth control for men.
“That means you set it and you forget about it until you are ready to have kids, and you turn it off,” Fox said.
The product, and ones like it, has been eagerly awaited for years. Discussion around it has become more prominent in the last few days since Wednesday’s Arizona Supreme Court decision that created a mostly-no-abortion environment in the state.
This next part is gross, but necessary. We’re sorry.
Instead of cutting and sealing the vas deferens (the tubes that carry sperm), a proprietary hydrogel called Vasalgel is injected into the hollow tubes. Once in place, Vasalgel acts like a filter — blocking sperm without restricting the flow of other fluids.
“Just like in the kitchen you use a strainer to strain your spaghetti noodles, allow the water to flow through and leave behind the spaghetti noodles,” chief science officer Dr. Rob Kellar said. “That’s kind of the same analogy here.”
Kellar and his team have spent the last several years testing and developing Plan A, which, he says, is built upon decades of lab and clinical testing around the world.
Sperm filtered by Vasalgel is naturally absorbed back into the body, a similar process for men who have had a vasectomy.
Unlike a vasectomy, Plan A is “reliably reversible through a simple follow-up visit.” A second injection dissolves the filter, which is flushed out of the body. Plan A is designed to protect against unintended pregnancies for 10 years.
It’s less invasive than a vasectomy in that a needle into the vas deferens is less invasive than surgical tools inside the scrotum. And it’s way less invasive than female birth-control surgical options.
The gross part's over. Thanks for sticking with us.
“We live in this modern world and yet half of pregnancies are still unplanned,” Fox said. “And I believe that’s because we’ve ignored half the entire population.”
A consumer research study by the Male Contraceptive Initiative suggests there’s a substantial market for male contraception in the United States — around 17 million men.
Plan A still needs to undergo clinical testing in the United States, which Fox expects to begin in the next few months. The company is looking for volunteers. The injection method has been tested in Canada; the sperm-straining gel has been tested in several other countries. Plan A needs to bring them together.
“We’re looking for anybody who is interested in male birth control, can go to our website at planaformen.com to sign up and then when it’s available in your region or if there’s option for you to travel there, we will share that information as it comes,” Fox said.
His goal is to make Plan A available to the general public by 2026 but would not reveal how much it will cost.
“We have set up tiered pricing models that best accommodate different pay levels,” Fox said.
Kellar said the project has more than just a medical appeal.
“Creating more options for men to get more involved in family planning I think is nice,” Kellar said. “Not just couples here in the U.S. but globally where we see a lot of these types of challenges.”
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