Advances in basic biological research have proceeded rapidly in recent years. The fields of molecular genetics and immunology have experienced dramatic breakthroughs, capturing the imagination of both the scientific community and the general public. With less public notice, receptor biology has brought a cascade of new discoveries and insights. The entire science of pharmacology has been virtually rewritten in terms of receptor phenomenology. In particular, the discovery of specific receptors for steroid and protein hormones has been of seminal importance. With this new information, we have advanced our understanding of the mechanism and specifity of hormone action. We can now explain how hormones interact selectively with specific target cells and how hormones alter biochemical events within the target cells. These facts have already impacted on applied problems of clinical medicine, particularly in diagnosis and treatment of cancer and some metabolic diseases. Now, a new and important application of basic receptor biology and chemistry looms ahead. Within a few short years since the discovery of the progesterone receptor, chemists have synthesized molecules with a greater affinity for the receptor than progesterone itself and which, while occupying the receptor, fail to trigger the events which transform a target cell from the unstimulated to the stimulated state. This is the basis of the competitive inhibitory action of the anti-progestational agent, synthesized by the chemists at Roussel Uc1af, Paris, and designated RU 486.

Mifepristone (RU486), the first clinically available antiprogestin, has generated great interest since its discovery in the early 1980s. Today, it is recognized that mifepristone, along with other antiprogestins, has a potentially significant therapeutic role in human health and disease, with likely applicability to a variety of pregnancy-related conditions (e.g., management of labor) and to contraception, endometriosis, and cancer, among others. But because mifepristone has been studied and used most widely as a means of nonsurgical abortion, political issues have thus far limited research on the drug and prevented its introduction into the U.S. market. This book provides an unbiased evaluation of current knowledge about both the fundamental nature of antiprogestins as well as their possible use in treating numerous diseases and conditions, and it contains recommendations for future research.

Annotation. An award-winner when first published, this book has become a classic text for health activists and feminists interested in the complexities of how drugs are developed, marketed and sold to women around the world. In this book the authors review the unusual history of the French abortion pill, RU 486 (mifepristone). They scrutinize the science and politics from inception through to its use on women. Is RU 486 a miracle drug for abortion that is a safe and effective alternative to conventional abortion procedures? Does it privatise and de-medicalise the abortion experience? Is its availability a victory for women? Is RU 486 safe for use in Third World countries and remote rural areas? Who benefits from chemical abortion and how does RU 486 affect existing abortion services? The authors argue that the positive claims made for RU 486 (mifepristone) are filled with myths and misconceptions. RU 486 used on its own is a failed abortifacient and needs the addition of a prostaglandin, a dangerous drug. But the success'rates of the drug cocktail RU 486/prostaglandin remain at 92 to 95 per cent compared with 98 to 99 per cent for suction abortions. Suction abortions, which are best done with a local anaesthetic, involve no harmful drugs and are completed in 30 minutes. By contrast, RU 486/PG abortions last for days, sometimes weeks. Heavy bleeding, transfusions, vomiting, severe pain and infection are among the unpredictable adverse effects. Women have died from sepsis and cardiovascular events. RU 486/PG abortion benefits the medical profession, drug companies and government health economies. Through painstaking research and analysis the authors uncover the truth that chemical abortion is ill-conceived and unethical. They caution that low-tech abortion services are under threat as the mainstream hails RU 486 abortion as safe and effective'which it is not.

The most controversial medical discovery of our time--the French "unpregnancy" pill--as described by the scientist who created it. RU-486, a drug designed to prevent gestation of the fertilized egg, has sparked an emotional debate that has spilled from the ranks of science into politics, religion, feminism, and ethics. 48 photos and drawings.

RU486 is the drug prescribed for medical abortion. This book deals clearly with the nature and effects of the drug, its risks and the history of its development and use in Europe, the United States and other overseas countries. It recounts the politics and controversy that surrounded its introduction into Australia. It discusses the drug's possibilities for use in the future - for medical abortion, but also for contraception and for the treatment of endometriosis, fibroids, and cancers of the breast and brain. RU486 is an important drug; RU486 the book is an important reference source for both women and men.

Simultaneously examining four significant, never-before-combined case studies, this unique feminist analysis offers troubling revelations about the private-public interaction in U.S. policy affecting birth control drugs. Reproductive Rights and the State: Getting the Birth Control, RU-486, and Morning-After Pills and the Gardasil Vaccine to the U.S. Market tackles a subject that remains controversial more than 60 years after "the pill" was approved for use in the United States. The first book to examine the politicization of the FDA approval process for reproductive drugs, this study maps the hard-fought battles over the four major drugs currently on the U.S. market. To make her case, Melissa Haussman scrutinizes the history of the FDA and the statutes that have governed it, as well as interactions between the U.S. government, American pharmaceutical companies, and the medical community. The analysis centers on explaining how three reproductive drugs were kept off the U.S. market well after their efficacy had been proven, while the availability of the fourth, Gardasil, has less to do with helping girls than with preserving the financial wellbeing of Merck. Readers will come away understanding how, when it comes to reproductive drugs, women's health concerns have consistently taken a backseat to political agendas and corporate profits.