Ferring Pharmaceuticals has submitted its controlled-release, removable misoprostol vaginal delivery system (MVDS) for approval in Europe, and the authorities accepted the submission for review. The FDA accepted the MVDS for review in the U.S. in October.
The delivery system has been developed to promote labor in women with an "unfavorable cervix." This is a cervix that hasn't begun to soften and thin (ripen) when the baby is due, which can mean that the baby has to be delivered by cesarean section.
Induction of labor is becoming increasingly more common, happening in more than a fifth of births. Misoprostol is used to "ripen" the cervix and induce labor.
Ferring has tested its delivery system in more than 3,000 pregnant women at full term and found that a single dose decreased the time to normal delivery of the baby compared with Ferring's Cervidil (dinoprostone).
- read the press release