Female Condoms In The Offing

Condoms for women, produced by the state-owned Hindustan Latex Ltd., will be launched next week commercially in select cities.

'For the past year we had test marketed 30,000 pieces of female condoms across the country and from the excellent response from both men and women, we have decided it is time to enter the market. This would now be available in almost all major cities of the country,' M. Ayyappan, chairman and managing director of the company, told reporters here Thursday.

He said it was the only product of its kind in the country made out of polyurethane while a competing product was made out of latex.

'Given the exorbitant cost of production we have decided to price a packet of two pieces at Rs.100.

'Female condoms have now been accepted in several countries and are considered by both men and women as the best contraceptive. We have now begun work on the second generation of female condoms and we expect to bring down the price by 25 percent," added Ayyappan.

IANS