In December 2010, Bayer HealthCare pharma (BHC) and the Unites States Agency for International Development (USAID) launched the joint "Contraceptive Security Initiative". This initiative aims to grant middle-income earners in sub-Saharan Africa access to oral contraceptives at affordable prices.

Ethiopian women will be the first to benefit from this public-priavte partnership. Women there will be able to purchase Micrgynon^® Fe, the most widely used oral contraceptive in the world,  at a lower cost. The initiative will benefit from a five-year window during which USAID will underwrite BHC's marketing and promotional costs. â€œThe plan is to create an affordable market for Microgynon^® Fe based on local prices—prices which still build in margin enough for Bayer HealthCare to sustain the program, without third-party involvement" explained Klaus Brill, Vice President of Corporate Commercial Relations at BHC. The Ethiopia launch is the first of a phased rollout of the program: ten other sub-Saharan nations will follow, beginning with Uganda and Tanzania in mid-2011.

For more information, visit the BHC website.