Celebrating 30 Years of Effective & Affordable Contraception
Today the world reels under the climatic alterations due to human activities exacerbated by population explosion. The World Contraception Day is celebrated on September 26th every year. The annual worldwide campaign centers round a vision where every pregnancy is wanted.
Launched in 2007, WCD’s mission is to improve awareness of contraception and to enable young people to make informed choices on their sexual and reproductive health. More and more women of reproductive age have chronic medical conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes. Pregnancies in women with chronic conditions can often be high risk. These women may also require medications that should not be used during pregnancy. Therefore, a carefully planned pregnancy is the key for women health and child wellbeing.
Centchroman: Non-steroidal Oral Contraceptive
The CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow started working on oral contraceptives way back in 1960 to promote family planning. In 1960, USA FDA approved steroid-based oral contraceptive agents, but steroidal contraceptives come with noticeable side effects. Hence, CDRI was searching for non-steroidal contraceptives with minimal to no side effects.
Soon thereafter, CDRI scientists synthesized Centchroman – a non-steroidal contraceptive – as per the Drug and Cosmetics Act of India. Based on clinical trials, Centchroman was cleared as the world’s first non-steroidal oral contraceptive with no steroidal drug side-effects such as nausea, vomiting and weight gain. The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) provided approval for marketing in 1990. It is manufactured and marketed in India since 1991 for birth control by HLL Lifecare Ltd., a Govt. of India Enterprise, under the trade name ‘Saheli’. Later, it was also included in the National Family Welfare Programme under the brand name ‘Chhaya’ in 1995.
Centchroman possesses anti-osteoporotic (bone desorption) action and estrogen effect on the Central Nervous System (CVS). There are indications that it can be prophylactic on ovarian, head neck, chronic myeloid leukemia cancers, atherosclerosis, lipid disorders, etc. Further, Torrent Pharma conducted clinical trials on Centrochroman/Ormaloxifene for dysfunctional uterine bleeding (DUB) and menorrhagia – it was approved by DCGI in 1996 for marketing as ‘Sevista’, which was later marketed by HLL as ‘NovexDS’. CSIR-CDRI, in collaboration with CIPLA Ltd., Mumbai is developing Centchroman as ‘Ormalin’ for the treatment of DUB and breast cancer.
Centchroman or ormaloxifene brought national and global recognition and has been detailed in nearly 450 research articles.
COVID-19 pandemic and Chhaya
Recently, in a webinar organized by the Centre for Advocacy and Research (CFAR), Additional Mission Director, UP NHM, Dr Heera Lal said: “Patterns indicate that demand for non-invasive family planning methods such as condoms, oral pills, emergency contraceptive pills have seen a rise. For instance, an 81% increment in distribution of the weekly Chhaya has been recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic in UP.
