Implantable microchips were designed to make the drug release slowly in body for years, which can replace the drug form as pills or injection. And now the microchips are going into clinical trail stage for further experiments on safety and efficiency.
The microchips contain hundreds dose of drugs and they are high enrichment of the present medicine to achieve the small volume in the chips. Every dose is separated with each another and will only be opened to take effect until receiving the correspondent instruction. It’s said that the independent drug units are like hundreds reservoirs, but with the microchip still in a size as the normal ones in computers or elsewhere.
The newly invented device carries many advantages as well as limitations, which is inevitable in drug design. First of all, in the form of microchips, it saves the various conditions required for drug reservation, like some need to be stored in low temperature. Besides it can replace the traditional form of medicines with a very tiny dose, as for the aim of easy absorption some drugs are needed to be taken in the form of injection or infusion. Furtherly, with the device patients who are trapped with chronic disease won’t be afraid of taking a mountain like bitter drugs every day .
Thirdly, the slow drug release device will target the aiming site of body instead of taking the whole body as object, which can protect the body parts in good condition from being affected. What’s more is that the dose can be controlled according to the needed dosage by the body condition, achieving a very accurate medicine amount to minimize the side effect.
The device can be totally controlled by an electric signal sent from the transmitter outside of bodies. And the controller out of the body can be in form of remote control like TV or a software in personal computers, kind of easy to handle for patients.
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However, the depth of the device can be planted in the body is in a relative narrow range. And the drug’s shelf life should be expanded for the chips are gonna to work in bodies for years, requiring a more advanced technology in the producing of the medicine suitable for such microchips.
The project is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with a high possibility to be successful in near future. Once the device is available in market, patients with diabetes, cancers, and other chronic diseases will benefit most.