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The long-acting, nonhormonal contraceptive - for men.
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November 5, 2014
Help us thank Packard Foundation!
We got the check! It's hard to believe -- Vasalgel's first foundation grant. Packard Foundation is the first foundation (other than little Parsemus Foundation, which has been carrying the weight for almost 5 years) to stand up and say men deserve reproductive rights too -- and to put their money where their mouth is, to the tune of $50,000! It'll help keep us afloat through manufacturing and testing -- and we think if they like what they see in terms of how we handle this grant, they might get behind Vasalgel in a bigger way later.

But our biggest fan at Packard Foundation (he says Vasalgel is the contraceptive of the future) is leaving the foundation in the next couple of months. We're nervous about how much the rest of the team really knows about Vasalgel. Will you help let the rest of the team know how important Vasalgel is to all of its supporters?

We had an idea for something a little warmer and fuzzier than email. How about going all old-school with it -- actually getting out paper thank-you cards? Think what an impression that would make!

If you're reading this at work, obviously that might be kind of hard, but maybe you can print something out (here's a site that seems fairly non-annoying) or pick something up at Trader Joe's. If you're home, maybe you have a stash of thank-you cards handy. We asked, and our fan at Packard Foundation said it's okay to send them (they won't get annoyed), and to send them to the department head:

Tamara Kreinin
Director, Population and Reproductive Health
The David & Lucile Packard Foundation
343 Second Street
Los Altos, CA 94022

If you write, you can let them know why Vasalgel is important to you (and optional, the short version of any birth control horror stories you've had -- although maybe not too graphic!). We're kind of curious -- out of 20,000+ people on the mailing list, will they get 10 cards, or a hundred, or a thousand? Either way, it should make an impression.

Manufacturing update
Sometimes it seems like all we write about is baboons! Yes, still no baboon babies (thank goodness!), from the 3 males who got Vasalgel in January or the new ones who got it in August. But there's a lot else going on behind the scenes. It takes a team of experts to get a product to the stage of conducting clinical trials. In our next update we'll send a report from our science guy Dave, who is wrangling manufacturing, stability testing, and ISO safety testing, all of which have to be done in the next few months before the first clinical trial can start next year. We'll probably send it next week, so keep an eye out!

Getting popular
Over 19,000 people got our last email, and over 9,000 opened it. Not bad, eh? (A 48% open rate is considered pretty extraordinary.) Obviously people care about Vasalgel. Speaking of which, this update got long -- so be sure to watch next week if you want to read the update on manufacturing and safety testing.

One last note about Packard
If you send a thank you card to Packard Foundation and you feel like dropping us a line, let us know. It makes us happyJ

More questions? Check out our FAQ or join us on Facebook

Help us complete these pivotal steps. We're working diligently and are thankful for your support!

Sincerely,
The Vasalgel™ team


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Vasalgel, a project of Parsemus Foundation
P. O. Box 6788
Albany, CA 94706-6788

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