Emergency Contraceptive Pill Registration Status by Country

Publication date: 2014

March 2014 Emergency Contraceptive Pill Registration Status by Country _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Emergency Contraceptive Pills (ECPs) are an essential component of women’s reproductive health. They offer women an important second chance to prevent pregnancy when a regular method fails, no method was used, or sex was forced. Research over the past 30 years has shown that ECPs are safe and effective. Women’s access to ECPs is significantly influenced by the availability of EC products in their setting. A number of dedicated EC products – those that are packaged and labeled specifically for EC use – exist, but women can only access these products if at least one product is registered and/or imported in their country. One or more dedicated EC products should be widely available through a range of outlets (clinics, pharmacies, hospitals, etc.). (In cases in which no dedicated EC product is available, however, off-label use of conventional oral contraceptives for EC (i.e. the Yuzpe regimen) represents an important option.) The International Consortium for Emergency Contraception has identified the following three registration statuses for ECPs and organized countries accordingly. 1,2  22 Countries have no ECP brands registered and appear not to import EC  26 Countries have no registered product but currently import EC or have imported EC products previously  146 Countries have at least one ECP brand registered 22 Countries have no EC pill brands registered and appear not to import EC: These countries do not have a registered product, and there is no evidence that they have ever imported EC products. The registration status was obtained from the International Consortium for Emergency Contraception’s Status & Availability Database and cross-checked with the RHInterchange database. Of the 22 countries with no registered product, several of the countries on this list, namely Costa Rica, Honduras, Malta, and the Philippines, have been sites of active opposition to EC. These countries are marked with the * symbol. Others, such as East Timor, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, and Western Sahara, have recently been or are currently affected by conflict (these countries are marked with +). Eight of the countries on this list have populations of fewer than one million people (marked with #), and of these, five have populations under 500,000. Although these very small countries may not be attractive to commercial distributors of EC, they may be able obtain EC through other means. It appears that the other countries that have no product registered are located in the Middle East (Bahrain, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates). Bahrain Brunei# Cape Verde# Costa Rica* East Timor+ Honduras* Jordan Libya+ Malta* Micronesia# Montenegro# North Korea+ Oman Philippines* Qatar Saint Kitts & Nevis# Samoa# Somalia+ Sudan+ Tuvalu# United Arab Emirates Western Sahara+# March 2014 26 Countries have no registered product but currently import EC or have imported EC products previously: These countries do not have a registered product but currently import or have previously imported EC, usually for the public sector and with support from donors, UN agencies, or NGOs. These countries may have a licensing arrangement which allows them to import contraceptive supplies on an on-going basis. This information was obtained from the RHInterchange database, which is maintained by the United Nations Population Fund. 3 Afghanistan Angola Bhutan Burundi Comoros Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Fiji Gambia Guinea-Bissau Haiti Iraq Kiribati Kosovo Maldives Papa New Guinea Rwanda Saint Vincent & Grenadines Sao Tome & Principe Seychelles Solomon Islands South Sudan Syria Tonga Vanuatu West Bank and Gaza 146 Countries have at least one EC pill brand registered: The registration status was obtained from the International Consortium for Emergency Contraception’s Status & Availability Database. Data came from pharmaceutical companies and key informants. Albania Algeria Andorra Antigua Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Burkina Faso Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Congo-Brazzaville Congo, Democratic Republic Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark El Salvador Estonia Ethiopia Finland France Gabon Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea-Conakry Guyana Hong Kong Hungary Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Bulgaria Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt Iceland India Indonesia March 2014 Iran Mongolia South Africa Ireland Morocco South Korea Israel Mozambique Spain Italy Myanmar (Burma) Sri Lanka Ivory Coast Namibia Suriname Jamaica Nepal Swaziland Japan Netherlands Sweden Kazakhstan New Zealand Switzerland Kenya Nicaragua Taiwan Kuwait Niger Tajikistan Kyrgyzstan Nigeria Tanzania Laos Norway Thailand Latvia Pakistan Togo Lebanon Panama Trinidad & Tobago Lesotho Paraguay Tunisia Liberia Peru Turkey Liechtenstein Poland Turkmenistan Lithuania Portugal Uganda Luxembourg Romania Ukraine Macedonia Russian Federation United Kingdom Madagascar Saint Lucia United States Malawi Saudi Arabia Uruguay Malaysia Senegal Uzbekistan Mali Serbia Venezuela Mauritania Sierra Leone Vietnam Mauritius Singapore Yemen Mexico Slovakia Zambia Moldova Slovenia Zimbabwe Monaco 1 Although we have made every effort to ensure that the above information is accurate, if you notice that something is incorrect, please write us at info@cecinfo.org. 2 Please note that certain countries, namely the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Denmark, and China have overseas territories and dependent areas. Since these territories and areas tend to adopt many, if not all, of the regulations that are implemented in the mainland, we believe that they also have access to EC. We have not listed them separately. 3 In terms of methodology, ICEC downloaded the complete list of all countries that have imported ECPs from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2015 from the RHInterchange database.

View the publication