Repros Therapeutics Inc. was a US-based development stage biopharmaceutical company headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas. Founded in 1987 as Zonagen, it focused on the development of oral small molecule drugs to address major unmet medical needs in male and female health. Joseph S. Podolski was the CEO of this company.[1] The company attempted to develop a vaccine based contraceptive, but trails failed and project was later abandoned.
History
The company was organized on August 28, 1987, as Zonagen, to try to develop birth control methods based on modification of the zona pellucida—a part of the oocyte. The company bought the rights to the research of Bonnie S. Dunbar, researcher and professor at the Baylor College of Medicine, and attempted to create a contraceptive vaccine.
Zonagen, Inc. was formed in 1987 by Dunbar, Baylor and a group of investors, including Ross Perot and Lloyd Bentsen III, son of 69th United States Secretary of Treasury Lloyd Bentsen. The company hoped to market Dunbar's invention as a nonsurgical method of sterilizing dogs and cats. In the meantime, Zonagen would help Dunbar continue the pursuit of her life's work: the world's first contraceptive vaccine for humans.
Her research, which had been progressing well, ground to a complete halt according to Brian Wallstin of the Houston Press newspaper in his article “Biological Disaster.”