Getting Extra Time to Hatch

Although the science of creating babies in the lab — in vitro fertilization (IVF) — has improved since its birth in 1978, IVF has followed pretty much the same pattern. Sperm and eggs are combined in a petri dish; once an egg is fertilized, one or two embryos are transferred to the mother's uterus to implant and develop. But in 2003 a Swiss gynecologist, Pascal Mock, envisioned a new approach: instead of fertilizing and developing the embryo in a laboratory, do it in the most natural environment possible — a woman's womb. The novel idea hatched Anecova S.A, co-founded by Mock and CEO Martin Velasco in 2004. It teamed with scientists at Lausanne's EPFL Institute, as well as two leading European IVF clinics, to turn concept into kids.

The innovation is a tubelike silicone vessel with hundreds of tiny holes. Less than a millimeter in diameter and only 10 mm long, the supple, permeable device is injected with sperm and eggs (or fertilized eggs) and then placed in the uterus, allowing fertilization and development to take place inside the womb rather than in a test tube. "It is as close to nature as the assisted reproductive technology can get, making this psychologically and emotionally demanding process much easier for the woman," says Velasco. Anecova's preliminary studies show that embryos developed in the womb "are morphologically and chromosomically superior," he says. Following the success of the company's 2006 clinical trial — in June, babies were born in Belgium to two of the study's couples — Anecova's technique is expected to be marketed in Europe in the second half of next year. Talks are under way with the FDA as well; Velasco hopes for a green light to launch the technology in the U.S. in 2009.