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Dr. Zipper develops quinacrine as a method for sterilization.

1973

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Funded by the International Fertility Research Program (IFRP), Dr. Jaime Zipper begins studying the use of the anti-malarial drug for sterilization.

Initial clinical trials are completed in Chile, India, and Bangladesh in the late 1970s, and later trials will be conducted in the 2000s in the United States. The sterilization project is backed by Dr. Elton Kessel, who argues that quinacrine sterilization can control population growth, and reduce maternal deaths in poor and "developing" countries.

Dr. Zipper develops a new technique using quinacrine pellets. This method of sterilization is irreversible and causes the formation of scar tissue in the uterus and fallopian tubes after the intrauterine insertion of two quinacrine pellets 28 days apart. It can cause irreversible damage to the reproductive organs.

Quinacrine pellets will begin to be mass produced in North Carolina.