U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory committees meeting jointly on Wednesday voted unanimously that the benefits of making Opill, a birth control pill, available for use without a prescription would outweigh the risks, drugmaker Perrigo Co. PLC PRGO said in a release. The joint committee’s vote is not binding, but the FDA often follows advisory committee recommendations. The vote is “a new, groundbreaking chapter in reproductive health,” Perrigo president and CEO Murray Kessler said in a statement. Opill was first approved for prescription use in the U.S. in 1973. Perrigo stock is up 3.2% on Wednesday, while the S&P 500 is down 0.3%.
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