FDA advisers vote unanimously in favor of OTC birth control pills
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A panel of independent medical experts for the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously on Wednesday in favor of allowing the hormonal birth control pill Opill (norgestrel) to be sold over the counter rather than by prescription.
The 17-0 vote by the panel came after a two-day meeting in which the experts reviewed data and analyses from the pill's maker, Laboratoire HRA Pharma, and FDA scientists, as well as heard public comments on the potential switch.
Opill is a once-a-day pill containing only progestin. It was first approved in 1973 and has shown to be remarkably safe in the five decades since then, proving safer than combination hormone pills that have risks of blood clots. Experts estimate Opill is about 93 percent effective at preventing pregnancy in real-life use, higher than the real-life efficacy of other easily accessible birth-control methods, such as condoms (around 87 percent).