New NIH Awards for Contraline and Yaso Therapeutics

Two groundbreaking contraceptive R&D efforts have recently received major funding from the National Institutes of Health.

Contraline has secured a $1.9 million NIH SBIR Phase II award from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to advance the next-generation version of its ADAM™ device—a non-hormonal, vas-occlusive contraceptive designed to expand options for men. The award supports the work of Contraline’s R&D team, led by Yelena Tropsha, PhD.

Meanwhile, Yaso Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical company dedicated to advancing women’s health, has been awarded a competitive NIH grant (1R44HD118927-01) to initiate first-in-human clinical trials of its lead non-hormonal contraceptive candidate. This novel therapy is the first of its kind to combine contraception with dual infection-prevention properties using a single active drug. The trial will be conducted at the University of Pittsburgh’s Magee-Womens Research Institute and UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital.