Medicines360’s long and winding, $82 million road to create and distribute $50 birth control

By SONO MOTOYAMA of The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Chronicle of Philanthropy

Drugs and medical devices rarely come from the nonprofit world. There are more than 2,600 for-profit pharmaceutical companies in the United States, but only three nonprofits have products on the American market. One of them is Medicines360, which in 2015 became the first nonprofit to introduce a medical device — an IUD. The genesis of the device came from an anonymous foundation that saw one of the most effective and reversible birth-control methods, the hormonal IUD, was too expensive for most women. Even insured women could be billed copays of up to $1,000. To bring a $50 alternative to market was a complex, yearslong journey, which explains the six-year project’s $82 million cost.