WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE via COLLEGIATE PRESSWIRE)--Jan 29, 2002--An unusual advertising campaign starts running today in 30 U.S. college newspapers.
Designed to educate women about the need for back-up birth control, the full-page ads and poster inserts feature tongue-in-check male pin-ups that the sponsoring company hopes college women will hang in their dorm rooms. Women`s Capital Corporation (WCC), the makers of Plan B(R) emergency contraception, developed the campaign to let women in on what`s been called birth control`s ''best kept secret''.
The ads don`t contain information about Plan B, but direct readers to the Plan B web site at http://wwwgo2planb.com. The ad campaign is intended to increase awareness of emergency contraception as a new option, while promoting responsibility by preventing unwanted pregnancies. The tagline reads, ''Accidents Happen...that`s why there`s morning-after contraception.''
''Doctor`s don`t talk about it, and women don`t know to ask for it,'' said Sharon Camp, president, WCC. ''With very high unintended pregnancy rates among young women, it`s critical to let college women know they can still prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex if they act quickly.''
WCC is unique in the pharmaceutical industry: a for-profit company financed almost entirely by foundations and nonprofit organizations. The company works directly with the public health and women`s rights communities to promote new reproductive health care options critical to women.
Every night in the United States about 10 million couples at risk of unintended pregnancy have intercourse; among these about 27,000 experience a condom break or slip, and over 700,000 are not protected against pregnancy at all(1). In addition, each year, one million women aged 15 to 19 get pregnant -- that`s a little more than one in every ten teenagers -- and at least 85 percent of these pregnancies are unplanned. Among women in their 20s and early 30s, more than half of pregnancies are unintended(2). Experts estimate that emergency contraceptives, like Plan B, could potentially prevent as many as half of the three million unintended pregnancies that occur every year in the United States, the biggest part of them to women under 25(3).
Plan B is the first progestin-only pill developed specifically to prevent pregnancy after a contraceptive accident or unprotected sex. It is highly effective and produces much less nausea and vomiting than older ''morning-after pills''. Plan B is not the same as an abortion pill. It does not work if a woman is already pregnant. Plan B should be taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex.
''One of the reasons it`s so important to increase women`s awareness of Plan B, is that they only have a short time to act,'' said Deirdre A. Younger, R.Ph. at the University Health Center at University of Maryland College Park. ''Ideally, a woman should talk to her health care practitioner about the possibility of having it readily available for emergency use.''
Currently, women in Washington, Alaska and California can obtain Plan B directly from a consulting pharmacist with special training. Other states still require a prescription. Plan B, like all emergency contraceptives, should not be used as a routine form of contraception and does not protect against sexually transmitted diseases.
Plan B is WCC`s first commercial product to advance women`s reproductive health. The company plans to develop and market a pipeline of high priority products to address important gaps in reproductive health technology, such as additional postcoital methods, women-controlled methods to prevent sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS, and drugs to treat important gynecological disorders.
(1) Contraceptive Technology Update, 17th edition
(2) It`s Your (Sex) Life, Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 1997.
(3) Emergency Contraception Fact Sheet, Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, November 2000.
|
