The Development of Contraceptive Technology: Case Studies of Incentives and Disincentives to Innovation

Abstract

This paper examines the characteristics of the process of innovation as applied to a range of contraceptive technologies. Whereas the understanding of how and why innovation works or does not work has grown in the past few decades in such professional fields as electronics, aviation, and optics, only the first attempts are currently under way in medicine. Borrowing from other fields, this paper proposes a theoretical underpinning to the process of innovation as it would apply to the development of medical technology. Subsequently, it documents this process with regard to contraceptive technology (oral contraceptives, injectables, intrauterine devices, implants, and surgical contraception), providing a framework of first-, second-, and third-generation definitions of development. A number of observations about the importance of certain supply- and demand-side determinants of the direction and rate of medical innovation conclude the essay.