Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Novo Nordisk have revealed the new self-injecting capsule, called the liquid-injecting self-orienting millimeter-scale applicator (L-SOMA) that administers typically injected liquid medications orally.
While injections help people who suffer from diseases such as Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and diabetes, these injections require training, equipment and are often inconvenient for those who need them. Most large protein drugs, however, cannot usually be given orally because enzymes in the digestive tract break them down before they can be absorbed.
“We recognize today that pills are the preferred route of drug administration, not only for patients, but also for health care providers. If we can make it easier for patients to receive their medication, we can help maximize drug adherence or compliance,” said C. Giovanni Traverso, MB, BChir, PhD, of the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endoscopy at the Brigham and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. “Our group focuses on developing systems that make it easier for patients to receive their medications.”
Targeting diabetes, Crohn’s disease and others
The researchers used the tech to deliver four commonly injected medications in a study published in Nature Biotechnology. The four medications were insulin, epinephrine, adalimumab (a monoclonal antibody used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and other autoimmune diseases) and a semaglutide-like GLP-1 analog (an anti-diabetic medication).