Sharon Camp, an international leader in women’s health issues, has a clear vision. She believes that a woman who has unprotected intercourse and is afraid of becoming pregnant should be able to take immediate action—without first becoming pregnant, without abortion, and without needing a doctor’s prescription for medication that can prevent unwanted conception. She should be able to solve her problem before it gets bigger—whether she is a rape victim or just someone whose contraceptive failed.
In 1996, Camp helped found the International Consortium for Emergency Contraception “to bring emergency contraception into the mainstream of women’s health care worldwide,” according to Camp. The Rockefeller Foundation launched the Consortium and a number of other foundations jumped in to help provide support. The largest share, $2 million, came from the Packard Foundation.
The Consortium’s goals were consistent with the Packard Foundation’s principles. David Packard established the Packard Foundation’s commitment to reproductive choice and family planning as part of the Foundation’s efforts to address global overpopulation issues.
The Guttmacher Institute, which Camp also heads, reports that “a substantial proportion of the 11 percent decline in abortion rates between 1994 and 2000 resulted from women’s use of emergency contraception.” This translates to approximately 51,000 abortions averted by emergency contraception.
Yet, back when the Consortium launched, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did not allow a woman to get emergency contraception drugs without a doctor’s prescription, even though such drugs had been available worldwide for many years. Delays, like waiting to see a doctor, render emergency contraception useless—it must be taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy.
The Consortium realized that it needed a foothold in the U.S., not only to help women here, but because the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was a primary provider of contraceptives to developing countries and family planning programs. Its pharmaceutical partner, Gedeon Richter, had developed an emergency contraception product but was reluctant to make a move into the U.S. because of product liability and abortion politics. Gedeon Richter agreed to anonymously supply the drug—called Plan B—to a U.S. pharmaceutical partner, if one could be found.
Camp talked to every pharmaceutical company and none were willing to sponsor the drug in the U.S. Battered but not bowed, Camp created a new company, the Women’s Capital Corporation (WCC) to market Plan B in the U.S.
Even with the Gedeon Richter’s Plan B in hand, Camp needed financing to produce the pills. She initially came up with nothing—no one from commercial equity groups or other companies wanted to risk a potential political backlash. So, she turned to the nonprofit world, including six Planned Parenthood affiliates, and raised about $12 million, of which $8.5 million came from the Packard Foundation.
“Others made equity investments,” Camp says. “The Packard Foundation didn’t want to do that because their share of the financing was so large. It was the board’s feeling that it would look like they owned the product, so they made a series of loans.”
The first loan was a 1-year “recoverable grant,” an interest-free program-related investment (PRI) of $2 million. The first million had to be matched before the WCC could receive the second half, and the WCC achieved that goal. During the product development and roll out, the Foundation continued its support with a $4 million PRI in 1999, and another $2.5 million PRI in 2001. Others provided funds as well, including the Wallace Global Fund, Family Health International, Planned Parenthood of Western Washington (now part of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest), the Compton Foundation, and several Planned Parenthood affiliates.
By February 2003, she says, “it was clear that the company was in trouble, both in terms of unity of mission and in terms of its finances.” Again, the Packard Foundation stepped up to the plate, this time with strategic advice and a grant for $187,137 from the Organizational Effectiveness program. Though a much smaller amount than before, but one that would be crucial to keeping the company alive.
Six months after the company restructured, the WCC was in the black with $10 million in sales. In 2004, Barr Laboratories Inc. bought the WCC for approximately $21 million, including $9 million of assumed liabilities. Barr was later sold to Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd., which now markets Plan B One-Step, a one-pill variation on the original Plan B.
After many years of battles with the FDA, beginning in 2006, all women and men age 17 and over in the U.S. can get Plan B One-Step and Next Choice, another emergency contraceptive, from a pharmacist without a prescription. In several states, younger women can get these emergency contraception drugs without a prescription.
Plan B and other “morning after pills” continue to be controversial. A federal appeals court ruled in 2009 that pharmacists are obliged to stock and dispense the pill, even if they are personally opposed on religious grounds. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), in 2010, some Walgreens pharmacies in Texas refused to sell the pill to men.
Without the commitment of the Packard Foundation, Camp maintains the cause of emergency contraception could not have come this far. The Packard Foundation helped start the consortium. It helped start the WCC, shape the company, and create the FDA applications. Along the way, the Foundation saw its loans repaid, but it also helped create something much more important: today, women in the U.S. can safely avoid unwanted pregnancy and abortion.