| Inventor Mir Imran has created a "robotic" pill to replace injectable drugs for chronic conditions like diabetes. With backing from Google, the pill could be trialed as early as 2015. |
Prolific inventor Mir Imran, claims to have created a robotic pill to replace injectable drugs for chronic conditions like diabetes and point to the new future of embedded medicine. The device, in preclinical studies and backed by Google's venture-capital unit, consists of an ingestible polymer and tiny hollow needles made of sugar that are designed to safely deliver drugs to the small intestine.
Current drugs used to treat a variety of chronic conditions, including diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis and multiple sclerosis, can't be delivered in pills because stomach acids break down the proteins.
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As the acidity, builds up in the intestine, the outer layer of the polymer pill casing dissolves, exposing a tiny valve inside the device that separates two chemicals, citric acid and sodium bicarbonate.When the valve becomes exposed, the chemicals mix together to create carbon dioxide. This acts as an energy source, gently inflating a balloon-like structure that is outfitted with needles made of sugar and preloaded with drugs.
The needles push into the intestinal wall, which has no pain receptors. Once lodged there, they detach from the gadget and slowly dissolve, while the balloon and polymer casing pass out of the body.
Imran's pill hasn't yet been tested in humans, so it is probably still years away from even seeking federal approval. It also would require substantial financing to manufacture millions of pills. If it is successful, the pill has the potential to disrupt a long-established multibillion-dollar market for injectable drugs and make life easier for millions of sufferers of conditions such as diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.
The Indian-born Imran is the founder of the research lab and business incubator InCube Labs in Silicon Valley has founded more than 20 medical-device startup and holds over 300 patents and helped develop the first implantable cardioverter defibrillator to correct irregular heartbeats. Rani Therapeutics, the startup formed at InCube Labs to commercialize the robot pill, last year raised funds from Google Ventures and angel-investment fund VentureHealth.
Blake Byers, the Google Ventures general partner who spearheaded the investment, says Mr. Imran may be achieving one of the "holy grails" for biotechnology by figuring out how to deliver protein-based drugs such as basal insulin to the body without the use of a syringe.
"This investment is not exactly in our wheelhouse, but we're open to people who can change our minds," Byers told the Wall Street Journal. "This one really stood out as a huge clinical need; $110 billion is spent in the U.S. every year on biologics, all of them injectable."
In numerous attempts over the past 40 years to make insulin and other drugs available in pill form, pharmaceutical companies have been able to create coatings so tough that pills can reach the small intestine. But once there, they are attacked by enzymes, which has compromised the pills and prevented significant amounts of the drug from reaching the patient.
In preclinical studies, Rani Therapeutics has shown that its robotic pill can boost drug absorption at least as high as syringes can, Mr. Imran said.
Rani Therapeutics will spend another year testing the robot pill, he said, in the hope that it will have definitive clinical data in 2015.
SOURCE Wall Street Journal
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