A biotech firm is racing two new male contraceptives toward the market, including an on-demand pill company leaders say may heighten pleasure, not dull it.
NEXT Life Sciences is developing PausePill, a non-hormonal oral option designed for roughly 24 hours of birth control, and Plan A, a reversible hydrogel implant meant to work like a temporary filter in the vas deferens. Founder and chairman L.R. Fox told The Post that interest is already running hot.
“We have 50,000 men who’ve signed up just from word of mouth,” Fox said. “We’re not actively advertising. People are signing up and saying, ‘as soon as it’s available, please.’”
That waitlist claim sits beside survey numbers the company and coverage highlight as proof of demand. A 2024 survey of more than 18,000 men across seven countries found 61% would consider trying a new male contraceptive in its first year on the market, including 49% of men in the United States. A 2023 survey found two-thirds of American women interested in having their partners use contraception.
For decades the practical male toolkit has stayed thin: condoms, withdrawal, or a permanent vasectomy. An on-demand pill and a reversible office procedure would expand that list, if larger trials and regulators eventually back the early results.
PausePill is pitched as a light-touch, short-acting option. The company says it interferes with the signal that releases sperm through the vas deferens rather than flooding the body with hormones. Taken ahead of sex, it is meant to cover about a day.
In a small U.S. Phase 2 trial of 10 men, the pill prevented sperm release in 100% of participants who took it within two hours, according to the reporting of the company’s account. The same early readout found no meaningful difference in sexual pleasure or function compared with placebo and no major adverse events.
Fox went further on the pleasure point, citing informal feedback rather than a formal endpoint.
“In fact, anecdotally, we’ve heard men say that they actually have increased pleasure.”
That line is a company claim, not an independent medical verdict. The trial sample was tiny. Larger studies still have to test safety, consistency, and real-world use.
Fox said the firm is “sprinting towards a larger clinical trial starting at the end of this year, 2026, with hopes to bring it to market within two years.” If it ultimately wins regulatory approval, PausePill would start as a prescription product. No approval has been granted.
Plan A, built on the Vasalgel approach, takes a different path. Doctors would place a small hydrogel barrier in the vas deferens, the tube that carries sperm, in a procedure the company says can take about 10 minutes in a doctor’s office. Sperm would be blocked; semen would still flow.
Fox framed it against a standard vasectomy.
“A vasectomy permanently shuts off that pipe by cutting it. This is just a small little filter that’s put in there.”
He called the concept “a light switch for fertility.” When a man wants children later, the company says a separate dissolving solution would clear the barrier. “When you’re ready, whether it’s three years or five years or 10 years from now, we’ll flip it back on.”
After placement, sperm clearance can take up to three months. Men would need to keep using other birth control until testing confirms no sperm remain. That lag matters. A temporary implant that still requires months of backup contraception is not the same as instant cover.
In a first-in-human Vasalgel study of 16 men, all were successfully implanted and all reached azoospermia, no sperm in the ejaculate, within 14 days, per the company’s description. Fox said there were no serious adverse events and that problems otherwise resolved quickly. “In fact, all men were able to return to work immediately.” A second part of the work, evaluating reversal, was described as ongoing. Prior animal reversal results were called positive; full human fertility restoration data were not presented as finished.
Both candidates rest on small human numbers so far: 10 men for the PausePill Phase 2 snapshot and 16 for the first Vasalgel implant series. Company statements dominate the public picture. Absolute trial dates, full protocols, and independent readouts were not laid out beyond those figures and Fox’s comments.
Regulatory status remains conditional language only. Coverage notes approval would be required before PausePill could ship as a prescription drug. FDA process details, formal designations, and outside safety audits were not provided in the available reporting.
Still, the product logic is straightforward. One path is a pill you take when you need it. The other is an office implant you can, in theory, reverse without cutting the tube for good. Men who want shared responsibility without a permanent surgery are the obvious audience. Women who already carry most of the contraceptive burden are another. The 2023 and 2024 survey figures suggest that audience is not imaginary.
Fox cast the moment in generational terms.
“I believe future generations will look back and be like, in 2026, like how did you not have this? It’s about time. Let’s get this done and just make this normal.”
Making it “normal” will take more than a waitlist and two small studies. It will take larger trials, clean safety data, durable reversal proof for Plan A, and regulators willing to sign off.
Fifty thousand word-of-mouth signups, if accurate, show men will raise their hands for new options. Nearly half of U.S. men in the 2024 multi-country survey said they would consider a new male method in year one. Two-thirds of American women in the 2023 survey wanted partners more involved. Those numbers do not approve a drug or an implant. They do explain why a company would sprint toward an end-of-2026 PausePill trial.
Contraception has always been about consequences as much as chemistry. Unplanned pregnancies land on families, budgets, and kids who did not vote in the decision. Tools that let competent adults prevent that outcome, without permanent sterilization or a daily hormone load, fit a common-sense test. The market should reward methods that work, reverse cleanly, and do not bury side effects in fine print.
PausePill’s pleasure anecdote will draw headlines. The harder questions are plainer: Does the 100% signal-block result hold in hundreds of men, not ten? Does Plan A reverse on schedule in humans with restored fertility to match the “light switch” pitch? Who measures the 50,000-person waitlist, and how? Those answers belong in transparent trial data, not launch slogans.
Until then, the honest read is simple. Male birth control is finally getting serious product candidates. Early signals look encouraging. The finish line is still years and large studies away.
Men stepping up with real options is overdue, as long as the science, not the sales pitch, gets the last word.
