Program seeks Council approval for an initiative titled “Development of Novel or Improved Infertility Technologies.”
Infertility impacts about 15% of all couples, with males and females each contributing to roughly half of infertility cases. According to the CDC, the use of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) has doubled over the last decade but is still well below demand. Despite this increase in ART usage, ART still has a success rate of about 35%. Additionally, ART is prohibitively expensive for many families suffering from infertility. To address these issues, new, improved, and more cost-effective treatments for infertility need to be developed for both women and men.
Program seeks to reallocate funds for 3 NCTRI centers towards this initiative. While NCTRI funded projects have been extremely successful by all metrics, the goal of the NCTRI centers was never explicitly to develop novel technologies or improve existing technologies addressing infertility. Long-term, Program envisions a shift for our flagship infertility centers towards more outcomes based clinical interventions.
The goal of this initiative is to implement a milestone driven approach to establish projects focused on the development or improvement of drugs, products, devices, or changes in clinical practice to improve reproductive outcomes for those struggling with infertility. The use of a milestone driven mechanism will generate highly innovative, high-risk/high-reward programs that, upon completion of their milestones, will be well positioned for further product development.
This proposed concept aligns with Theme 2 of NICHD’s Strategic Plan: Promoting Gynecologic, Andrologic, and Reproductive Health, explicitly calling for NICHD to “Identify biologic, social, and environmental factors that can lead or contribute to idiopathic female and male infertility and/or early pregnancy loss [and a]pply this knowledge to expand technologies or methods for fertility stimulation, fertility preservation, and/or contraception.” Given the inclusion of improving clinical practices and lowering infertility costs as goals of this initiative, we also anticipate addressing the Cross Cutting theme of “Health Disparities” and consider research related to fertility/infertility in people living with HIV.
This proposed concept addresses three branch priorities: 1) Early Pregnancy Loss and Predictors of Pregnancy Outcome 2) Fertility and Overall Health & 3) Nutrition, Metabolism, Circadian Rhythms, and Reproduction.
Program Contact
Travis Kent
Fertility and Infertility Branch (FIB)
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