Increasing choice of contraceptive for women and girls

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and Pfizer Inc. announced an agreement that will enable Sayana® Press, an injectable contraceptive to be sold for US$1 per dose to qualified purchases. This will significantly expand access to an easy-to-use and effective injectable contraceptive, enabling women and adolescents in 69 of the world’s poorest countries to have access at a reduced or no cost.

More than 200 million women in developing countries want to delay pregnancy or prevent undesired pregnancy but are not using any method of contraception.

Injectable contraceptives are a widely-used family planning method among women in developing countries, where the lifetime risk for death due to a maternal cause can be as high as 1 in 15. In many developing countries, women must return to a clinic or health post every three months for a new injection from a skilled health worker, limiting access in remote and other hard-to-reach areas. Accordingly, experts have identified the need for a contraceptive method that can be administered in low-resource, non-clinic settings. Because of its delivery technology, expanding access to Sayana® Press could help fill this gap.

The agreement builds on the momentum of recent efforts undertaken by the consortium of public and private organisations on an introduction programme to help make Sayana® Press available for the first time in five countries in sub-Saharan Africa (Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal and Uganda), coordinated by PATH, and in South Asia (Bangladesh).