A revolutionary new device is set to eliminate the need for injections.
Nothing more unpleasant than a sting. To improve the lot of patients subjected to this daily affliction, such as diabetics or people suffering from cancer, researchers have developed a small capsule that transfers the drug directly into the body from the stomach. Thanks to this new device, baptized Soma, there is no longer any need for an injection, you just have to swallow it.
The shape of a miniature turtle’s shell
“Oral administration is the simplest and least invasive way to take pharmaceuticals, but many drugs, such as insulin, cannot survive passage through the stomach,” the scientists explain in the preamble to the review. Science.
The device is shaped like the shell of a miniature turtle. Once it is positioned against the stomach wall, a needle comes out and injects insulin into the body, “directly through the gastric mucosa while avoiding perforation”. The device then passes through the colon and is eliminated naturally by the body.
Researchers knew that if they could pass a drug through the stomach wall, it would easily enter the bloodstream. They also concluded that a prick in the stomach, which doesn’t have many receptors, would be painless.
Test Soma in humans in three years
The device currently works in rats and pigs, and scientists hope to start testing Soma in humans in three years. “We have conducted in vivo studies in rats and pigs that support the safety of the applicator and, using insulin as a model drug, we have demonstrated that Soma produces plasma concentrations of active pharmaceutical ingredients comparable to those obtained by subcutaneous administration”, specify the engineers.
At a minimum, they could soon change the lives of 425 million people with diabetes worldwide, and 18.1 million cancer patients.
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