Ritika Janiya
A new pill, OXO-001, can give couples battling with IVF a better chance of pregnancy. If one believes the researchers in a study, women who took the pill showed a higher percentage of pregnancy and live birth rates compared to when the placebo was used. The drug appears to be safe, and soon it will undergo testing in a bigger group.
Researchers have discovered a new pill known as OXO-001, which has given hopeful chances of pregnancy to couples struggling with IVF treatments. The drug, designed by the Spanish biotech firm Oxolife, works on lining the uterus cavity and thus optimizes the process of implantation of the embryo.
In a recent study, the team treated 96 nonpregnant women aged 40 years and below requiring fertility treatment in the form of IVF or ICSI with donor eggs. Treatment was performed in 28 centers across Europe from September 2021 to January 2023. Patients were assigned a placebo or OXO-001 administered twice a day, beginning one menstrual cycle before the embryo transfer and up to five weeks after implantation.
Those results showed an “ongoing pregnancy rate” 10 weeks after transfer of the embryo, measuring 46.3 percent for the OXO-001-treated women and 35.7 percent for those who received the placebo, a “clinically significant finding,” researchers said while presenting their research at ESHRE’s 40th Annual Meeting in Amsterdam.
It was found that, compared to the 35.7% of women who went on to have a live birth with the placebo, the new pill increased this to 42.6%. This is an increase in meaningful numbers for the number of women going on to have a live birth.
Drug-related adverse events were similar in both groups of women and included headache, nausea, vomiting, gastrointestinal problems, dizziness. Most of these were mild to moderate in degree. The drug had already been tested for safety in small studies called pre-clinical trials — very early clinical testing of the drug — so this was an unexpected development.
Next will be testing OXO-001 on a bigger group of ladies, including those using their own eggs, to see if the drug works more broadly in patients.
A simple-to-take pill that materially improves the chance of success would therefore be of huge help to people who want a baby, said Dr. Agnes Arbat, chief executive of Oxolife. “This proof-of-concept phase two study shows that hope is now closer to being realized.”
To this, Dr. Arbat added that the study was designed only on women using donor eggs to isolate the true effect of OXO-001 on the endometrium but believes OXO-001 could work just as well in women using their own eggs. A larger Phase three clinical trial is already being planned to support product registration.
This presents new hope, therefore, to most couples facing the challenge of infertility, providing a potential new solution to increase their chances at baby-making.
