INVO Bioscience Inc (INVO)

[ANESRI]

The mini incubator that could halve cost of IVF: 'Champagne cork' device may give thousands of women chance of motherhood (From 2014)

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2802476/the-mini-incubator-halve-cost-ivf-champagne-cork-device-thousands-women-chance-motherhood.html#ixzz3r0TDXouj
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Excerpts
‘We are trying to simplify the whole process – what we like to call effortless IVF.’
In a conventional IVF lab, fledgling embryos are kept in expensive incubators for up to five days before the best ones are put into the woman’s body.
This is costly. The incubators cost tens of thousands of pounds each and have to be constantly monitored to make sure they are working properly, are at the right temperature and contain the right mix of gases for the delicate embryos to grow.
The INVOcell technique lowers costs by doing away with the incubators and the need for constant monitoring.
The early-stage embryos are instead nurtured inside a clear plastic device of roughly the same size and shape as a champagne bottle cork.
This is placed inside the woman’s vagina, which is at the right temperature and contains the right mix of carbon dioxide and oxygen for growth.
Nine babies have so far been born using the new, cheaper, IVF technique.

After three to five days, it is removed and the best embryos transferred to the woman’s womb as usual.
Costs are also cut by giving lower doses of the powerful drugs used to boost egg production ahead of IVF.
Lower doses also mean that a woman needs to make fewer visits to the IVF clinic to check the drugs are working properly.
So rather than taking time off work for ten trips to her doctor, she only needs three appointments.
In a study of 33 infertile women, pregnancy rates were the same among those who used INVOcell as those whose embryos were nurtured in incubators.
Dr Doody, of the Center for Assisted Reproduction in Bedford, Texas, said: ‘We are amazed that we could grow beautiful, top-quality embryos without the complexity of an incubator.’
His wife, Dr Kathleen Doody, said: ‘We definitely had feedback from patients that it seemed more natural to them.’
It is hoped that by simplifying the process, it will be possible to provide IVF from mobile units, making it more accessible for those who don’t live in big towns and cities.
Dr Doody, who has shares in the device’s manufacturer, Massachusetts-based INVO Bioscience, said that while it won’t be suitable for all women, it could help up to two-thirds of patients.
The device may also make IVF more acceptable to the Catholic Church, which disapproves of IVF because fertilisation takes place outside the body and in a dish.
With INVOcell, fertilisation takes place once the device is inside the woman’s body.




Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2802476/the-mini-incubator-halve-cost-ivf-champagne-cork-device-thousands-women-chance-motherhood.html#ixzz3r0TDXouj
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