Dive Brief:
- San Francisco-based Medicines 360, which is bringing a new IUD to market, plans to sustain itself through product sales—and the FDA has approved this model, according to Xconomy.
- Medicines 360 is a not-for-profit. The company is partnering with Dublin-based Actavis, which will handle sales.
- The product will be marketed under the brand name Liletta.
Dive Insight:
Liletta is an IUD contraceptive approved by the FDA for three-year use. Based on the partnership between Actavis and Medicines360, Actavis will be able to leverage its network of 25,000 physicians who are involved in women's health while taking a portion of the profit from product sales.
Medicines360 will use its part of the sales profit to subsidize access to Liletta at clinics that serve lower-income women. The company's CEO, Pam Weir, emphasizes that pill-based contraceptives have approximately a 9% failure rate, and that despite previous controversy surrounding earlier versions of IUD-based contraception, the choice of getting an IUD is good for women with limited options.