Shepherd Medical Co. Inc. is focused to development of a male-contraceptive device that will pose less risks and is easier to reverse than a conventional vasectomy. Their device is a silicone implant, called an Intra Vas Device (or IVD), that will act as a contraceptive with similar effectiveness to surgical procedures. The IVD is placed at the opening of the vas deferens, through which sperm travel when leaving the body. Vasectomies also target the vas deferens, but that treatment involves severing the passages entirely - an expensive procedure, and one that is tricky to reverse. Shepherd's system costs about $800 per treatment, and could be reversed for about half that amount. The company said that animal studies on primates had shown that, once the device was removed, the subjects quickly regained fertility. Human trials were untaken in Canada.
