New Drug Development For Pregnancy-Related Conditions Lagging

A recent review found that only 17 medications for maternal health are in development worldwide, and many advocates say that the “drought” of new medications to treat pregnant women is unlikely to change any time soon.

The review says that no new classes of drugs have been approved for conditions such as preterm labor in the past 20 years and that none are currently being tested in clinical trials.

There are so few effective drugs for pregnancy complications; in some cases the only option to save the life of a pregnant woman is for her doctor to deliver the infant early.

Some researchers said that past issues involving testing drugs on pregnant women have cause them to be cautious. The drug thalidomide was used to treat morning sickness in the late 1950s and early 1960s but later was found to cause severe limb deformities in infants.

Another drug — diethylstilbestrol, or DES — was prescribed from the 1940s through the early 1970s but was found to cause cancer in the daughters of women who took it.

Although drug makers would like to develop drugs for pregnancy complications, the companies have to take into consideration the potential harmful effects that experimental drugs could have on a fetus.

Get more information here: Medical News Today