Evaluation of delivery systems for active immunization with synthetic peptides of hCG as a fertility control method: A collection of study data and discussion by the World Health Organization task force on the Regulation of Human Reproduction 1999–2007

Abstract Human chorionic gonadotropin represents an ideal target for designing vaccines for fertility control for two main reasons: the molecule is only produced in significant quantities during pregnancy in humans and that to remove the molecule from the circulation results in pregnancy loss. There have been several attempts to design hCG vaccines for both pregnancy prevention and as a cancer therapy agent. During the period between 1973 and 2007, the World Health Organization set up a task force on the use of vaccines for regulating fertility in collaboration with Vernon Steven's group at the Ohio State University Research Foundation in the United States. This chapter describes a delivery system for the last version of the vaccine that met the criteria for use in a safe and effective antifertility product. The details of the testing of numerous vaccine delivery systems between 1999 and 2007 are presented here.