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Depo-Provera: costs eat up clinic contraceptive budgets.


 Manufactured by Pharmacia and Upjohn, Depo-Provera is the only injectable method of contraception available in the US. It was first introduced to the US in 1993, and first listed as a contraceptive method in the National Survey of Family Growth in 1995. Since 1993, Depo-Provera has become increasingly popular among female adolescents, who have switched from oral contraceptives (OCs) to the injectable method. For example, 17% of adolescent clients chose the method in 1997, jumping from an 11% increase in 1996. In 1995, the first year in which the use of Depo-Provera was tracked nationally, among sexually active, contracepting women, 19% of non-Hispanic Blacks and 10% of White and Hispanic adolescents reported using Depo-Provera as their first choice contraceptive method. This uptake in demand for Depo-Provera is straining and even overwhelming the budgets of many publicly funded family planning and reproductive health clinics. Pharmacia and Upjohn offers volume discounts on the purchase of Depo-Provera, but clinics, which already enjoy significant discounts on OCs, still argue that the costs of Depo-Provera are beyond their funding capacities. Depending upon the negotiated price, OCs may cost a clinic $2 per cycle, for an annual per patient cost of $24. Depo-Provera, however, may cost a clinic $15 per quarterly shot, for an annual per patient cost of $60.
