VLI Gets $1-Million Grant to Study New Spermicide

VLI Corp. of Irvine said Monday that it has received a $1-million federal grant to study the effectiveness and safety of a new high-potency spermicide for possible use in the company’s Today brand contraceptive sponge.

The three-year grant from the Child Health Institute, one of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., gives VLI a long-awaited opportunity to improve the effectiveness rating of its sperm-killing sponge, already the most popular over-the-counter contraceptive in the nation.

Since its introduction in June, 1983, the VLI vaginal sponge has used the nonoxynol-9 spermicide.

Under the grant, VLI will study the effects of a spermicide called RS-37367 that has been developed by the Syntex Corp. Kenneth Berger, VLI’s director of research and development, said the new compound is believed to be five to 10 times more effective than nonoxynol-9.

“This spermicide might be able to get us up into the contraceptive effectiveness range of the intrauterine device and pill,” Berger said. The current sponge with nonoxynol-9 is rated 91% effective. The pill and IUD have a 95% to 96% effectiveness rating.

Berger said VLI will initially test the new compound, already proven effective in animal experiments, in its laboratories to determine if it can be mixed with the company’s special-formula polyurethane foam-sponge material. If the tests are successful, Berger said, the company will apply to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for permission to conduct human tests.

Berger said it would be at least four to five years before VLI could bring a newly formulated sponge to the public for sale.