Hit the jump to hear more about microchip drug delivery.
The specs:
The chip is one-fiftieth of an an inch thick and measures about half and inch long by a fifth of an inch wide. It contains 10 reservoirs, each holding 600 nanoliters of highly concentrated drug. The sides are covered in a metallic membrane made of a composite of titanium and platinum, wired to electronics that provide a path for a current. To deliver the drug, the membrane is melted, releasing the necessary dose. The chip can be programmed to release drugs on a timed schedule, or manually by an operator using a computer. Teriparatide was an excellent candidate for this delivery approach, as it requires daily injections, and let's face it, daily administration of anything can instill compliance issues. The implantable chip will hopefully elimate these types of problems.
In the study, seven osteoporotic postmenopausal patients between the ages of 65 and 70 received the microchip-based implant. The primary objective of the clinical trial was to assess the pharmacokinetics of the released drug teriparatide from the implanted devices. Safety measures included evaluation of the biological response to the implant and monitoring indicators of toxicity. Secondary objectives were to assess the bioactivity of the drug and to evaluate the reliability and reproducibility of releasing the drug from the device.
The results thus far seem promising. Blood tests showed that the drugs dispensed by the microchip was as effective as ordinary injections in increasing bone mass and bone mineral density.
Pretty cool stuff, I suppose. I mean, if people weren't so lazy, this probably wouldn't be necessary. However, I could see the benefit for some drugs, that maybe are a little more unconfortable to self-administer.
Interesting. Thanks for this.
ReplyDeleteI don't see a very wide application because of the limited number of very small doses, implantation complications, and cost. I presume that the drug used was taken at long intervals and has low possibility of overdose.
Perhaps it would be useful with non-compliant patients as you suggest.
Or this is a prototype and the cost will go down while deliverable dosage scales up. Claiming that it has limited application at this point is like someone in the 60s claiming that computers have limited application because they fill a room and run on 4 KB of RAM. Drug trials are expensive, but mass production makes most of them (relatively) affordable in the long run.
ReplyDeleteI must admit it's a pretty cool stuff, but it ranges from 10K to 12K a year?! Seriously, if I’m the patient I’d rather look for the best online pharmacy.
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