When I was a college freshman, I was among the 45% of 15-29 year old students with a stated desire to work in healthcare. Like many of these young people, I didn’t initially realize that a career in health could be outside a hospital setting–but soon discovered another exciting and important avenue in public health.

The Initiative for MPTs (IMPT) is dedicated to advancing the comprehensive sexual and reproductive health of women and girls worldwide. The Secretariat staff, who manage this global learning network, comprise a group of women who have worked a combined eight decades in the women’s health and sexual and reproductive health fields. From working with underserved women in Mauritania and the Ivory Coast as Peace Corps volunteers, to HIV testing and counseling in Baltimore, to community organizing in San Francisco and Sacramento, to conducting ethnographic research in Newfoundland, to coordinating HIV prevention clinical trials in Cape Town, our team’s diverse experiences and skills have contributed to the strategic advancement of the MPT field.

Evofem Biosciences’ lead product candidate, Amphora® is an MPT – more specifically, a Multipurpose Vaginal pH Regulator (MVP-R^TM) – that is being developed for the prevention of pregnancy and certain sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including chlamydia and gonorrhea.