A microchip implanted under the skin to deliver drug doses to patients with osteoporosis has proven safe and effective, CNN reports. The devices released 19 doses and “worked as intended,” researchers said.
The human trial began in 2012 with eight women; in 2012 researchers reported the devices were tested on seven women. In 2015 they announced that Microchips Biotech had teamed up with Teva to manufacture the devices. Teva invested $35 million to get in on the ground floor.
The chips work through “hundreds of pinhead-sized reservoirs, each capped with a metal membrane, that store tiny doses of therapeutics or chemicals. An electric current delivered by the device removes the membrane, releasing a single dose,” MIT News reported.
While the chips are still a few years from public distribution, manufacturers hope they will help patients not only monitor their medications, but to facilitate their adherence to taking them. Once on the market they could be used for such treatments as chemotherapy, birth control, vaccines and diabetes, they said.
SOURCES:
Science Translational Medicine February 22, 2012
Source: Original Article
Publish Date: 2023-02-19 02:28:07