“A male birth control pill with an entirely new kind of contraceptive mechanism has been tested for the first time in humans.

In the first clinical trial of its kind, a nonhormonal oral contraceptive that reversibly stops sperm production has just been deemed safe for human use. The daily pill, called YCT-529, blocks a vitamin A metabolite from binding to its receptor in the testes; this prevents the chain of gene-expression changes that are required to start the sperm-making process. Safety results from the early phase 1 clinical trial were published on Tuesday in Communications Medicine.

The trial did not assess the pill’s efficacy in reducing sperm, and the drug’s developer, YourChoice Therapeutics, is currently running trials to collect that data. But the safety finding is a crucial milestone.”

From Scientific American.