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New morning-after pill works for 5 days

ellaOne also said to be more effective

Updated: Thursday, 28 Jan 2010, 8:25 PM EST
Published : Thursday, 28 Jan 2010, 8:21 PM EST

• MARIA CHENG

A new type of morning-after pill is more effective than the most widely used drug at preventing pregnancies in women who had unprotected sex and also works longer, for up to five days, a new study says.

The report was published Friday in the British medical journal, Lancet.

Levonorgestrel, the most widely used emergency contraceptive pill, is only effective if women take it within three days of having sex. It is sold under various brand names including Levonelle and Plan B, and is available in more than 140 countries, including the United States, Canada and many countries in western Europe. In nearly 50 of those countries women can get it without a prescription.

International researchers compared Plan B to the new drug ulipristal acetate, sold as ellaOne in Europe only with a doctor's prescription. The drug is not legally on the market elsewhere.

Experts tracked nearly 1,700 women aged 16 to 36 who received emergency contraception within three to five days of having unprotected sex. About half got Plan B while the rest got ellaOne.

In the group that got Plan B, there were 22 pregnancies. In those that got ellaOne, there were 15. In both groups, the most frequently reported side effect was a headache. The research was paid for ellaOne's maker, HRA Pharma, which helped design the study.

When the researchers pooled their results with a previous study comparing the two morning-after pills, they found women who took ellaOne within five days after sex almost halved their chances of becoming pregnant compared to women who took Plan B.

Women who took ellaOne had a 1.8 percent chance of becoming pregnant, while women who took Plan B had a 2.6 percent chance.

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