“Condoms and coitus interruptus are the only means of reversible birth control in men -- and will remain so because the problem is not scientific, but economic,” Carl Djerassi wrote in WIRED in 2013.
Djerassi was a chemist, renowned for synthesizing noresthisterone in the 1950s, an essential component of the first oral contraceptive. His involvement earned him the title, shared with Dr. Gregory Goodwin Pincus, “Father of The Pill.” According to Djerassi, the research path to longer-term, reversible, male birth control was obvious.
“Scientifically, we know how to create a ‘male Pill,’” Djerassi asserted.
But Djerassi also thought that he would never get to see it, because the economics of pharmaceutical development would inevitably get in the way. Some of the more promising scientific discoveries about male contraception are decades old, but were never developed into public products. Because of a combination of legal, social, and biological factors, male contraceptive technology hasn’t been able to attract the necessary research dollars.