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The release is for Opel, the The first birth control pill Accepted in the United States and online sales will begin on Monday morning, according to the drug manufacturer Perrigo.
Consumers can begin ordering Opel online Monday and orders will be fulfilled within a day or two, Perrigo senior vice president and chief consumer officer Sarah Young said in an email. So far, the product is available on Opel.com And Amazon.
“Because privacy is important to Perrigo, Opel orders are shipped in unmarked boxes with parchment,” Young wrote.
Opel retails for $19.99 for a one-month supply, $49.99 for a three-month supply, and $89.99 for a six-month supply at Opel.com.
Earlier this month, Opel's first shipments were sent to distributors, major drug stores and pharmacies — but once those shipments make their way through the distribution pipeline, it could take days to weeks before customers get the product.
That timeline includes goods arriving at distribution centers and then delivered to retailers, who then package the product to order online or place it on store shelves.
Some major retail pharmacies, such as CVS and Walgreens, have said they will offer OPIL upon delivery.
“Opill will be available on CVS.com and through the CVS Pharmacy app in late March,” spokesman Matt Blanchett wrote in an email. “Beginning in early April, more than 7,500 CVS Pharmacy stores will offer OPIL, and for added privacy and convenience, customers can choose same-day delivery or buy online and pick up in-store.”
Dr. Anne-Marie Amis Ohlschlager, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Washington, said online access to Opil could benefit women who live in remote rural areas or lack transportation. A medical school that focuses on adolescent care.
“The biggest population that will benefit from this is the people who have limited access to contraception in the first place. There are a lot of people who live in what we call contraceptive deserts in our country, and these are areas where access to reproductive health care is limited, which means they have to drive very far to be able to find a provider, or to a nearby one. They may not have access to a pharmacy,” Olschlager said.
“In particular, this can affect adolescents who rely on adults to provide transportation or go to a provider, and this allows them to access contraceptives with more privacy,” she said. “People in similar situations of domestic violence may have access to contraceptives without someone else's knowledge, without a partner or someone preventing them from using contraception or tampering with their birth control. ”
Megan Kavanaugh, principal research scientist at the Guttmacher Institute, said the more ways people can access birth control — both in-store and online — the more control they have over their reproductive health and choices. He has been monitoring Opel's emissions.
“Having online options for people who are very tech-savvy and comfortable navigating the online environment, which we know younger people are better at anyway, is a great option,” Kavanaugh said.
“It's really important to have pharmacies and physical locations where other people who want to overcome the hurdle of prescription requirements have that over-the-counter option and can meet with a pharmacist if they want to,” he said. “There's no requirement that they have to do that, but it's great for people to have as many options as possible.”
When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Opil for over-the-counter and age-restricted use last year, public health experts hailed the move as a milestone in expanding birth control coverage in America. Now that the rollout is underway, however, there is concern that states may impose restrictions on that access.
“We live in a time where everything related to people's sexual and reproductive health and people's ability to achieve their reproductive goals and exercise their reproductive freedoms is unfortunately politicized,” Kavanaugh said.
No states have made such proposals or actions to restrict access to the pill, but the concern stems from the 2022 US Supreme Court Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade and struck down the constitutional right to an abortion.
“We are concerned about access to all forms of sexual reproductive health care. So the Dobbs decision directly affected abortion, but we see evidence that it spilled over and affected sexual and reproductive health care and contraception. He testified at an FDA public hearing last year In favor of approving OPIL without age limit.
“Having Opel on the shelves is a big milestone,” she said. “And I think we should really celebrate the victory, and we should always seek to make this milestone in this direction more accessible to all.”
“If people really want to reduce unintended pregnancy — and reduce unintended pregnancy, which reduces abortion — they should support increasing contraception,” Olschlager said of the debate over abortion in the United States.
Because the FDA has approved Opil without age restrictions, menstruating and menstruating women can buy it, Dr. Leanna Wen, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at George Washington University. He said this month. In her previous role as Baltimore health commissioner, she oversaw city-run reproductive health clinics.
“Opil should be considered by individuals who want birth control but cannot see a primary care physician, gynecologist, or other provider who can prescribe birth control pills,” she says.
Some states may try to enforce age limits on Opel, said Dr. Vineta Gupta, executive director of the nonprofit Network Public Health Acthe said in an email.
In some cases, there are state-by-state age restrictions on certain medications, such as over-the-counter medications containing the cough medicine dextromethorphan, Gupta said. He wrote a blog about this topic.
In the year In 2012, California became the first state to ban the sale of cough medicines containing dextromethorphan to minors, and since then, buyers have Several other states have signed similar laws.
Separately, when it comes to Plan B emergency contraception, there have been some attempts to enforce state-by-state differences in age limits.
Plan B was approved for over-the-counter use in adults in 2006 and 2013. Approved for all ages. That year, “Oklahoma passed a law requiring anyone under 17 to get a prescription before Plan B can be made available to them.” The state sued and the plaintiffs, represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights, won. The law is unconstitutional because it violates the law The single subject rule of the state,” Gupta said in an email. The rule prohibits individual legislative or ballot initiatives from addressing more than one issue or unrelated issue in a single piece of legislation.
But these precedents don't set the precedent for what kind of authority the FDA can have to restrict the use of an approved drug, Gupta said.
When it comes to OPIL, “many states allow pharmacists to be ethically objectionable and not be involved in 'health care.' This could include giving individuals an OPC, even if it is OTC,” she says. “Legal approval and actual access are two separate issues, with the latter affecting a wider range of issues, including government policies, health care practices, and the socioeconomic aspects of health.”