Two unique ideas from India have won prestigious Bill and Melinda Gates foundation grant for being novel ideas to improve global health. One is a non surgical and reversible alternative to tubectomy and another is development of biodegradable polymer. This will help in coating T intrauterine devices.

Professor Sujoy Guha of Indian Institute of Technology was awarded for the first project and Abi Santosh Aprem of HLL life care Ltd got awarded for the second project. They will each receive $100,000 in grants for further researches. Professor Guha has found a novel drug. It is a magnetic polymer which will be inserted through vagina and placed inside the fallopian tube of a woman with the help of radio frequency. It will help in killing the sperms and ovum passing through it.

Transcervical Reversible Female Contraception has been proven successful when tried on small animals like rats and rabbits. However it still needs to be tried on large animals before being tried on human being.

This process has got several benefits over tubectomy. Tubectomy is actually a surgical procedure and a permanent method of contraception. By Professor Guha’s method, a woman can conceive when she wants by removing drug compound that will be placed inside the tube. So this new method is both non-surgical and reversible.

Professor Guha told that tubectomy can only be done in an operation theatre by some gynecologists.

Aprem’s project will help to eliminate all side effects that are associated with Copper T coating in intrauterine devices. He said that IUD is a long term birth control method. It is actually a small T shaped plastic device that is wrapped in copper and contains hormones.