The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7236 p217
15 February 2003

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Progesterone analogue promising for preventing pre-term births

HYDROXYPROGESTERONE caproate (Proluton Depot) prevents pre-term births in women at high risk of giving birth early, researchers report. The progesterone analogue is currently used for the prevention of spontaneous abortion in women with a history of recurrent miscarriage.

Dr Paul Meis, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Centre, North Carolina, and colleagues assigned 306 women with a history of spontaneous pre-term birth to receive weekly injections of 17-alpha-hydroxyprogesterone caproate and 153 to receive placebo. Treatment began at 16 to 20 weeks gestation and ended at 36 weeks.

The researchers found that, compared with placebo, hydroxyprogesterone reduced the risk of giving birth before 37 weeks of pregnancy by 34 per cent. It also reduced the risk of pre-term birth before 32 weeks by 42 per cent.

Data were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Maternal Medicine held in San Francisco last week.