Pomona, N.Y.-based generic drug maker Barr Laboratories on Thursday announced that it will acquire the emergency contraceptive product Plan B from Washington, D.C.-based Women's Capital Corporation, the Bergen Record reports (Krauskopf, Bergen Record, 10/3). EC can significantly reduce the risk of pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sexual intercourse. Plan B is thought to work by interrupting ovulation, preventing fertilization of an egg or inhibiting a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus (Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 4/22). WCC, which was formed by a group of women's health advocates specifically to make EC available, brought the drug onto the market after it gained FDA approval in 1999, a time when "no major drug company would touch the pills" because of concerns about bad publicity, according to the Wall Street Journal (Abboud, Wall Street Journal, 10/3). Although the regimen is different from the drugs prescribed to induce a medical abortion -- mifepristone and misoprostol -- some antiabortion groups oppose the sale of EC because they believe it causes abortion (Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 4/22). A letter to WCC shareholders said that Plan B's sale to Barr would be worth $24 million and would include retaining some sales rights in Canada (Wall Street Journal, 10/3). WCC Chair Ellen Chesler said that Barr has "a mission that seems coherent with ours," adding that the company had always planned to sell the product to a larger pharmaceutical firm that could increase EC access, according to the Record. Barr CEO Bruce Downey said, "As part of our commitment to women's health care, which includes the expansion of our franchise of oral contraceptive products, we recognize that some women may need a product such as Plan B in the event of contraceptive failure, or in the event that no method of contraception was used" (Bergen Record, 10/3). According to the Journal, the FDA in mid-December will consider WCC's application to make EC available without a prescription. If approved, EC could be sold over the counter by spring 2004 (Wall Street Journal, 10/3).