In the summer of 2002, the pharmaceutical company Organon unveiled what it believed would be a game-changer in the multibillion-dollar birth control industry. Its product, NuvaRing, was the first hormonal contraceptive vaginal ring in the world. An easy-to-use device that relieved women of the burden of taking a pill on a daily basis, it was hailed as the greatest advance in contraception since the introduction of the pill in 1960.

“We’ve never seen anything like this in my lifetime,” Dr. Carolyn Westhoff, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology who worked on NuvaRing’s clinical trials, told Newsday that August.

“It’s really an exciting time for contraceptive users,” Dr. David Grimes, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina, told The Washington Post. “It’s a new era.”