molecules of the year

YCT529 (YourChoice) is a potential non-hormonal male contraceptive with impressive preclinical oral efficacy that is expected to enter clinical development in the first half of 2023. This retinoic acid receptor alpha (RAR-α) antagonist, discovered by Gunda Georg’s lab at the University of Minnesota, was first disclosed in 2022 and highlighted at ACS Spring 2022. Reversible, oral male contraceptives have been challenging to develop for a range of reasons including the extraordinarily high bar for safety required for adoption and the high bar needed to see efficacy competitive with much more established female contraceptive options. If it is similarly safe and efficacious in humans, it could lead the way towards the first “pill” for men. The Georg lab has worked on…