When Caitlyn Pace moved from the United States to Hong Kong three years ago to take a teaching job, she loved the food, the sights and the birth control.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, a group of external advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration will discuss an application from a pharmaceutical company to put their prescription birth control pill over the counter. One has to do with obesity. The FDA approved Opill as a prescription drug in 1973, and "the prevalence of obesity in adults in the United States has changed dramatically since the original clinical studies were conducted over 50 years ago," the scientists wrote in the document, citing a 13% obesity rate in 1960 compared with a 42% obesity rate now.
The FDA scientists were also concerned that studies by Perrigo, the company that manufactures Opill, showed some women didn't follow the label instructions. They said some women in the study didn't take the pill within the same three-hour window every day, which is important for efficacy. The FDA also expressed concern that without counseling from a doctor, women might not realize when Opill wasn't appropriate for them.