New Male Birth Control Pill is out, and it is 99% Effective

An Indonesian college has secured the patent to produce a male contraceptive pill which is derived from a local plant.Called “gendarussa,” the plant provides the crucial ingredient in a long-awaited drug: birth control pills for men.
Tribesmen in Indonesia’s jungly island of Papua have long known this shrub prevents their wives from getting pregnant. In recent years, Indonesian scientists have tested pills synthesized from gendarussa on hundreds of male subjects.
The results? “It’s 99 percent effective,” says Bambang Prajogo, the research project’s lead scientist. He heads a team comprised of researchers from the government’s National Family Planning Coordination Board and Airlangga University, one of Indonesia’s top colleges.

GlobalPost first reported on Indonesia’s male birth control pill nearly four years ago. Since then, hopes for the pill have been buoyed by several successful clinical trials. The paper spoke to the research team to find out how men might actually use the pill once it’s released on the Indonesian market in 2016.