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Perrigo wants the FDA to approve the first ever over-the-counter birth control pill.

(Reuters) -Perrigo Company said on Monday that its unit HRA Pharma has asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to let a daily birth control pill be sold over-the-counter (OTC). This is the first time that this kind of birth control has been asked to be sold this way. The HRA’s request comes after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade case, which made abortion legal all over the country.

The birth control pill is a prescription drug that is sold under the brand name Opill.

HRA Pharma expects the regulator to hold an advisory committee meeting and approve the application in the first half of 2023. Usually, it takes about 10 months for such requests to be approved, said Frédérique Welgryn, HRA Pharma’s chief strategic operations and innovation officer.

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“It seems like a bit of a coincidence.” Since 2007, we have been working on that application, “Welgryn said.”

The FDA chose not to say anything about the submission.

The president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Iffath Abbasi Hoskins, said that the submission was a good thing.

“We know that birth control is not a solution to abortion bans because people need abortion care for many reasons,” Hoskins said, but she added that the pill could still help more people “control their own reproductive futures.”

At the moment, the only birth control pills that women can get without a prescription are oral emergency pills that can be taken up to three days after having sex without protection.

Pro-abortion activists are calling for mifepristone, which, when taken with misoprostol, can cause an abortion up to 10 weeks into a pregnancy, to be sold over-the-counter.

Since the FDA approved the non-estrogen Opill in 1973, it has only been available with a prescription. Perrigo said that scientific evidence shows that progestin-only pills like Opill work to stop pregnancy and are safe for most women to use.

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