IMR Press / FBE / Volume 10 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.2741/E807

Frontiers in Bioscience-Elite (FBE) is published by IMR Press from Volume 13 Issue 2 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Review

Centchroman: A safe reversible postcoital contraceptive with curative and prophylactic activity in many disorders

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1 Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, India

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Front. Biosci. (Elite Ed) 2018, 10(1), 1–14; https://doi.org/10.2741/E807
Published: 1 January 2018
Abstract

Centchroman (INN: Ormeloxifene), a reversible post-coital/weekly oral contraceptive (half-life of about 168 hours), designed and developed at CDRI, Lucknow is the only non-steroidal oral contraceptive in clinical use in the world today. Synthesized in 1967 and completing pre-clinical and clinical studies in 1989, this drug was approved for marketing in 1991, social marketing in 1995 and NFPW in April 2016. It acts by preventing implantation of blastocyst in endometrium. It is the only contraceptive which neither suppresses ovulation nor interferes with the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis. It has high level of safety and is virtually free from side effects except for a delay in about 8% menstrual cycles which is not confined to any women/cycle. Besides contraception, this SERM is also clinically useful in the management of DUB, mastalgia and fibroadenoma and has promising therapeutic efficacy in a variety of cancers including breast cancer. Due to estrogenic activity, this drug also has anti-osteoporotic and cardioprotective activity. Thus, Centchroman is likely to show other curative and prophylactic activity in a wide range of other disorders.

Keywords
Centchroman
Ormeloxifene
INN
Oral Contraceptive
Dysfunctional Uterine Bleeding
Breast and Associated Cancers
Osteoporosis
Review
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