According to a meta-analysis published early online in Fertility & Sterility, once weekly corifollitropin alfa (a long-acting recombinant FSH (rFSH)) in combination with daily GnRH antagonist appears to be a useful alternative for daily rFSH injections in normal responder patients undergoing ovarian stimulation in in vitro fertilisation (IVF)/ intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment cycles.

Researchers included data from 4 randomised controlled trials which compared the long-acting rFSH corifollitropin alfa versus standard daily administrated rFSH in GnRH antagonist IVF/ICSI cycles. The main outcome measures reported were ongoing pregnancy rate, live birth rate, clinical pregnancy rate, miscarriage rate, duration of stimulation, amount of FSH, number of retrieved oocytes, number of mature oocytes, number of embryos obtained, fertilization rate, ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) incidence, and adverse events. Some of the results reported were:

• There was no evidence of a statistically significant difference in ongoing pregnancy rate (4 RCTs; OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.54– 1.20) or in live birth rate (1 RCT; OR 1.15; 95% CI 0.99– 1.41) between corifollitropin alfa compared with daily rFSH

• There was also no evidence of a difference in clinical pregnancy rate (3 RCTs; OR 0.92, 95% CI 0.69–1.25)

• There was no evidence of a statistically significant difference in early miscarriage between both groups (3 RCTs; OR 1.07, 95% CI 0.59–1.94)

• There was no statistically significant difference in rates of adverse events between the two groups.

The authors concluded that “in view of its equivalence and safety profile, corifollitropin alfa in combination with daily GnRH antagonist seems to be an alternative for daily rFSH injections in normal-responder patients undergoing ovarian stimulation in IVF/ICSI treatment cycles.”