The FDA has announced that it is considering a French drugmaker's application to release the first non-doctor prescribed, over-the-counter birth control pill. Dr. Jessica Shepherd, the chief medical officer at Verywell Health, joined Cheddar News to talk about her thoughts on what would be a major change in reproductive health. "We may see this in the very near future, but I don’t expect it to be on the shelves tomorrow," she said.

Cheddar's News Wrap

Don't Expect OTC Birth Control Pills Just Yet as FDA Considers Drug Maker's Request

Welcome back to Chester's news wrap everyone. The pharmaceutical company HR A pharma has submitted an application to the FDA to provide the first over the counter birth control medication available to american women. The non estrogen pill has been approved for prescription since 1973 but it has not been sold in the U. S. For more than a decade. H. R. A farmer says the timing of its FDA submission just weeks after the Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to an abortion is quote really sad coincidence joining me now to discuss is dr Jessica Shepherd, chief medical officer. Very well Health DR Shepherd. Welcome back to the show. Always a pleasure. So if the FDA approves this application, what would this mean for women in this country? I think this is historic as far as what women have access to now. If you think of birth control and what we had, you know, up to 50 maybe even more years ago. This was really a groundbreaking woman when women had access to something to control pregnancy. Now with the overturning of Roe vs Wade. Like you just discussed, this is now kind of formulating the discussion topic of what happens now that we've repealed some options for women when it comes to the reproductive health is how can we improve that access when we think of the choices that they can make and what do they have? As far as resources and tools in order to help them. So let's talk about what's happening here. Will this change birth control counseling for people that may have medical issues conditions and of course contradictions. Now, I'm glad that you asked this question because you actually stated it right in your opening remarks that this is a progesterone only pill. So not to say that there's not any risk with progesterone only pills. But what we do typically find is when we are talking about those medical conditions and contra indications to birth control is usually from that estrogen perspective of a combined birth control. So this again decreases some of that risk. But I do think that's a fair question when we think of health care providers and the ability to really talk to their patients on an individual basis for what their medical conditions are, what their concerns are. And making sure that they get the correct counseling when making those choices for the reproductive health. How soon can we expect an answer from the F. D. A. What does this process entail exactly? Doctor Now, the good thing is that this actually has been brought up in 2016. This was something that was brought up from a company of switching from the prescription form of birth control to the over the counter prescription. So this is not new. But when you think of the FDA in the regulation that they go through in order to make sure that they're substantiated the actual medication and making sure that it's healthy for, you know on the shelf purpose that can take anywhere for up to nine months to maybe even a year. So you know, we may see this in the very near future. But I don't think it's going to be on the shelves by tomorrow. Not Okay. That that that makes sense. So do you anticipate other drug companies following suit here to get FDA approval for some kind of birth control and contraception? Absolutely. I think when we think of birth control, um again, now that that actually has more of a heightened importance because of what we've gone through with. Roe versus wade is that now we actually have to switch the pendulum to really focusing on pregnancy prevention. And so I think that we're going to see more of these companies down the line even when reading about H. R. A. Pharma is that there are other companies that do have some of these similar products that they do want to bring to the shelf and having to go through FDA approval. So I think that this is just the start of what we'll start to see when we think of over the counter access to reproductive care come for the company's chief strategic innovations Officer noted this quote. And I just want to read this out for our viewers because I know you know, this birth control is not a solution for abortion access. Again, that's according to that Ceo so we're making this pill available over the counter get abortion rights advocates a little bit more upset. Or do you think this is a separate debate altogether? I do think that it is a separate debate. However, any time anything is brought up about reproductive health and reproductive justice, it does tend to kind of go towards that topic of abortion whether you are, you know, for abortion or anti abortion. So I think we're going to see some of that dialogue resurfaced. Now. The important part is that when it does resurface, when you think of the actual mechanism of action of what this does? Again, it is a birth birth control pill. And again, not some type of abortion pill, but we will see that struggle. I think that no, technically, when we look at the historic uh proportion and foundation of birth control pills, there's strong evidence that shows that that's what that's for and it will remain that easy access for teenagers. Has of course, for years now, decades have been has been a controversial issue. What do both sides of the debate argue when it comes to that? And what are your thoughts there now? That is a very strong I guess you could say conversation topic now, even when emergency contraception was during the Obama administration was looking to be over the counter, there were some hesitations again on people having access when we think of age. But now on the flip side, if you were to think of the argument when we think of roe versus wade being overturned. Now we have that other side of the conversation of what does happen now in a 14 year old or a 12 year old or however young girl gets pregnant. Now what do we do with that situation? So I think these are always going to be very opposing forces when we think of an actual conversation. But the best part of this conversation is how do we actually increase access we've seen historically and through studies that the more that we have access that changes the conversation. That decreases the stigma and allows people to make better choices for themselves. Dr Jessica, shepherd, Chief medical Officer very well. Health. I say this all the time. We always appreciate your insight. Thank you so much.