The Development of Contraceptive Technology: Case Studies of Incentives and Disincentives to Innovation

Abstract

This paper examines the characteristics of the process of innovation as applied to a range of contraceptive technologies. Whereas the understanding of how and why innovation works or does not work has grown in the past few decades in such professional fields as electronics, aviation, and optics, only the first attempts are currently under way in medicine. Borrowing from other fields, this paper proposes a theoretical underpinning to the process of innovation as it would apply to the development of medical technology. Subsequently, it documents this process with regard to contraceptive technology (oral contraceptives, injectables, intrauterine devices, implants, and surgical contraception), providing a framework of first-, second-, and third-generation definitions of development. A number of observations about the importance of certain supply- and demand-side determinants of the direction and rate of medical innovation conclude the essay.

On Masculinities, Technologies, and Pain: The Testing of Male Contraceptives in the Clinic and the Media

“…I suggest that the news coverage of the testing of this male contraceptive technology can be ascribed to previous criticisms on contraceptive technologies that have created a climate in which the media has already been educated about questioning the promises of contraceptive technologies. Ever since the introduction of the first oral contraceptive for women in the early 1960s, the women's health movement has informed the media and the public about health risks and abuse of female contraceptives (Seaman and Seaman 1978;Gelijns and Pannenborg 1993). The contesting attitude toward male contraceptives is, however, different from that toward female contraceptives, in terms of both the origin and the content of the criticism.…”

“…Second, the public demand to reduce health risks led to more stringent rules and procedural regulations for the production and approval of new drugs. These changes in the drug regulatory system made contraceptive R&D into an area of innovation with a high risk of failure (Gelijns and Pannenborg 1993). The first efforts to include the development of new contraceptives for men in the R&D agenda can be traced back to the early 1970s.…”