Norplant contraceptive subdermal implants: introduction progress summary.

Norplant is manufactured and distributed by Leiras Pharmaceuticals an international company based in Turku Finland. Regulatory approval for marketing or programmatic use of Norplant has been gained in 14 countries while filings have been made to regulatory authorities in several more countries. Preintroduction trials have been conducted or are ongoing in 44 countries and almost 400000 women have used Norplant either in clinical studies preintroduction trials or as a distributed product. This report highlights the activities of the Population Council and its collaborators in introducing Norplant mainly in developing countries. An overview describes introduction progress in countries according to the councils regions of field activity while details of each country program are presented in alphabetically arranged country summaries.