Misoprostol for Maternal Health

In 2003, OASIS’s founders (known as Venture Strategies for Health and Development, VSHD at the time) and partners at the UC Berkeley Bixby Center for Population, Health & Sustainability embarked on an initiative to overcome the barriers to accessing misoprostol, a medicine originally registered for gastric ulcers but widely used off-label in obstetric care. In 2006, we facilitated the first ever registration of misoprostol for postpartum hemorrhage —a leading cause of maternal death and disability—in Nigeria. By 2014, misoprostol was approved in more than 25 countries, integrated into many government and civil societies health programs, reclassified as a WHO essential medicine, and had protected the lives of countless women in pregnancy and childbirth.