The daily non-hormonal tablet is 99% effective at preventing pregnancies in animal testing on mice.
The new development has shown zero side effects which has sparked confidence across the male population throughout Sheffield.
Nick Duffy, 23, Civil engineer said: “I still need some more information but from what I know already, I would be happy to take it. I would not necessarily be worried about it as long as there was thorough research.
“It is still in early stages and it has not been tested on a wide scale in the public. Generally I have a positive attitude towards it.”
Robert Downer, 20, History student said: “I would be willing to take it but not as part of the first round of people to test it. I want to see how it would affect people in the long term first or if people have any difficulties with it. I am not opposed to it at all.”
This development has sparked great enthusiasm from the female population too as many believe it will help relieve the pressure on women for having protected sex.
Lindsay Dower, 53, Air Traffic controller said: “It is a very good idea, the onus has been on women for far too long really and I think it should be equalled out as long as there are no longer term side effects then I think this is a really great thing.”
During the trials 200 mice were tested. This resulted in two test subjects falling pregnant. The pill drastically reduced the mice’s sperm count making them infertile but once the mice stopped taking the drug their sperm count was back to normal within four – six weeks.
Md Abdullah al Noman said: “The pill is non hormonal because unfortunately, men are less willing to take a birth control pill that has a side effect because they don’t bear the consequence of pregnancy.
“We cannot tell whether it will definitely go to human trials, no, because we have to file for a year and FDA will review all that data, and then they will give it the green light.
“So far, everything looks really promising. Even when we went to even 100 times higher dose than the effective dose, the compound didn’t show any toxicity.
But, you know, we cannot say much without a clinical trial. This is not a drug, this is just a drug candidate.”
According to the researcher the mice played and had sex which indicates their libido was not affected and they did not suffer depression or low mood.
Despite no previous treatments for effective and safe male contraceptives the researcher assured that once the drug has been approved after human trials it will be completely safe. He will even take it himself. But not everyone shares his confidence.
Genetics researcher, Connor Ward said: “It is a brilliant idea and hopefully a great step in the right direction towards contraception.
“I can’t say I am not worried about the potential human side effects but only the research will tell.”
Abdullah is part of a large team at the University of Minnesota who has been working on this drug for over ten years and have spent multi millions in funding. Noman and his team have now licensed their drug to a private company, YourChoice Therapeutics. They are aiming to start human trials as early as July this year in the US. He hopes to see the drug available to the public by the end of the decade.
So far no treatment for male contraception has passed human trials.
