On December 13, 2023, YCT-529, a drug that aims to be the first non-hormonal birth control pill for men, entered a Phase 1 clinical trial in the United Kingdom. This drug was brought to trial by YourChoice Therapeutics, a bio-pharma startup that was founded in 2018 based on University research by College of Pharmacy Regents Professor Gunda Georg.
The clinical trial will test safety, tolerability, and functioning of oral doses of the drug in 16 human participants. Until now, the drug has only been studied in animals. Georg was recently awarded a US patent for the compound, one of an average of 200 patents from different countries typically issued to the University of Minnesota inventors each year.