Big pharma’s latest secret: the morning after pill may not work if you weigh over 165 pounds

The morning after pill may be less effective on women who weigh 165 pounds or more; it may be totally ineffective on women who weigh 176 pounds or more; in Europe, the morning after pill is not recommended for women who weigh 165 pounds or more. So why doesn’t the average American woman know that her emergency contraception might not work? 

HRA Pharma, the French manufacturer of the European drug, Norlevo, is changing its packaging, big time. It will now warn users that the drug is ineffective in women weighing over 176 pounds and less effective in women who weigh more than 165 pounds. It will even recommend that women who weigh 165 pounds not take the pill. But why does that matter to women in the U.S. of A? Because, as Molly Redden points out in Mother Jones,  Norvelo, is chemically identical to Plan B One-Step, Next Choice One Dose, My Way, and several generic emergency contraceptives. Given that the average American woman weighs 166.2 pounds, this is especially significant: “There’s a whole swath of American women for whom (these pills) are not effective,” explains James Trussell, a professor of public affairs at Princeton University and a senior fellow with the Guttmacher Institute. But unlike their sisters overseas, American women won’t be getting any warnings about this risk.

In Europe, it works and worked like this: in 2011 a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Edinborough published research showing that emergency contraceptive pills were less effective on women who weighed more. In 2012, HRA Pharma started reviewing this data and got permission from the European Union to update its warning. In 2014, every single box of Norlevo will say “Studies suggest that Norlevo is less effective in women weighing [165 pounds] or more and not effective in women weighing [176 pounds] or more” and that Norlevo “is not recommended…if you weigh [165 pounds] or more.”

In the U.S., however, as Redden explains,

the Food and Drug Administration prohibits generic drug manufacturers from changing product information unless the brand name manufacturer makes a change, companies that manufacture generic versions of Plan B One-Step cannot update their packaging information unless Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the exclusive manufacturer of Plan B One-Step, acts first.

You mean, the FDA and pharmaceutical companies aren’t doing everything they possible can to ensure the health and safety of women? I can’t believe it! (If you can’t believe it, check out Dallas Buyers’ Club)

And, of course, as the comments posted in response to the Mother Jones article demonstrate, this news is being met with a beautiful combination of fat-shaming and slut-shaming.