Plan B Forum

The futuristic idea that microchips could be implanted under a patient's skin to control the release of drugs has taken another step forward.

US scientists have been testing just such a device on women with the bone-wasting disease osteoporosis.

The chip was inserted in their waist and activated by remote control.



A clinical trial, reported in Science Translational Medicine, showed the chip could administer the correct doses and that there were no side effects.

The innovation has also been discussed here at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

One of the designers, Prof Robert Langer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), claimed the programmable nature of the device opened up a fascinating new avenue for medicine.

"You could literally have a pharmacy on a chip," he said. "You can do remote control delivery, you can do pulsatile drug delivery, and you can deliver multiple drugs."

The work is described as the first in-human testing of a wirelessly controlled drug delivery microchip. The technology at its core has been in development for more than 15 years.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17050551

It sees the fingernail-sized chip connected to an array of tiny, individually sealed wells of a drug product - in this case, a parathyroid hormone, teriparatide, which is used to counter bone density loss. Fully packaged, the device is about the size of a heart pacemaker.

The drug wells are capped by a thin membrane of platinum and titanium. A dose can only get out when a well membrane is broken, which is achieved through the application of a small electrical current.

The chip controls the timing, and because it is programmable, the dosages can be scheduled in advance or - as in the newly reported study - triggered remotely by a radio signal.