Last month marked the 12-month time point for one of the baboon subjects to have Vasalgel. He has been happily living with a big a group of females - and breeding - without any pregnancies occurring! Three other males will reach this same milestone at the end of this month. Vasalgel has worked great as a contraceptive in the preclinical studies so far.

This has led us to further evaluate the second half of the puzzle: reversibility. Because the baboons did not prove to be the best animal model for reversal studies (their vas is very delicate!), we moved to a new model that surprisingly has very similar vas deferens anatomy to humans: dogs. Reversibility studies in dogs were initiated a few months ago, and we have been fine-tuning the implantation and reversal techniques in preparation for clinical (human) studies.

We put off doing studies in dogs for a long time, not liking the idea one bit. Parsemus Foundation requires that all animal studies adhere to the stricter European standards for housing and care, and we couldn't find any facility in the U.S. that would work with us. But now we have! During the short study, the dogs are housed in pairs in kennels with beds, toys and lots of human attention. When we visited recently, we were relieved to see that the dogs have more space than in most animal shelters. Best of all, all the dogs are placed in a sanctuary for adoption at the end of the project. Follow this link for more info on our animal welfare standards.

Stay tuned for more updates on results of the latest reversibility studies, which started yesterday. Although some men are interested in Vasalgel even without reversibility, and right now the efficacy results are great, we really think reversibility is the key to making it world-changing. So cross your fingers for this latest reversal approach!