After Today, Plan B Emergency Contraceptive Pill May Appear On Shelves Next to Aspirin

Teva Pharmaceuticals TEVA may soon have the only emergency contraceptive pill available to all ages without a prescription. If the company gets its way and the Food and Drug Administration complies, the company's Plan B One-Step--the original morning-after pill--will be available to consumers of all ages, without prescriptions. A positive verdict would give Teva the advantage of exclusivity it lost back in 2009, when a generic version of its drug was put on the market. As wider access means more revenue and higher profits, a positive decision will likely result in a boost for TEVA shares. The FDA's verdict is expected to land sometime today. The company has consistently fought the FDA's decision to increase the drug's availability and so far it has had a record of wrestling its way out of the regulatory body's hands. Since arriving on the market a decade ago, purely as a prescription drug, the 2006 Plan B became available over the counter for users aged 18 and older. In 2009, the minimum age was dropped to 17. Those under 17 are still required to see a doctor in order to acquire the emergency contraceptive, according to Bloomberg. In an attempt to stay on the cutting edge, in February Teva submitted an application to the FDA to change the pill's dual-label status (which makes it an over-the counter for adults and prescription for minors) and has fought the regulators tooth-and-nail ever since. According to Time, the contentious issue is better understood when you acknowledge one of the only arguments influencing resistance: conservatives vs. women's rights advocates ("liberal" sounds almost derogatory in this context). Without getting into it too deeply: conservatives think the drug encourages teenage sex, while the "liberals" think the pill prevents un-planned pregnancies. In reaching today's decision, the FDA has most certainly measured the pulse of public opinion. For Teva, a positive decision cannot come soon enough. The shares have been lagging and they are down 20 percent on the year. Generic versions of its other drugs have pressured its bottom line and the company has been looking at outsourcing operations in order to save the margins. Should Plan B become a shelf item like any other over-the-counter drug, it will create a bounty on the revenues it brings in for Teva. Bloomberg reports that in 2006 the sales more than doubled when the pill became available over-the-counter for users 18 and up. It will likely see similar increases when users under 17 years-of-age are granted access to the drug, no matter how public opinion winces at what this says about the population and its relationship with sex. The cherry on top for Teva is the generic version Next Choice and the more effective Ella, both marketed by Watson Pharmaceuticals WPI will not join it on the shelves, yet. TEVA closed at $40.05 per share on Tuesday, WPI at $40.05.