Long releasing swallowable pill
11/17/16 A new drug delivery device that stays in the stomach and slowly releases its contents could replace daily pills with weekly or monthly ones. Typically once a pill is swallowed, it passes through our body within a day. A cardiologist from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a CSO from a MIT spinout have teamed up and created a pill that once swallowed, the outside capsule dissolves and the inside polymer expands into a star shape in the stomach. It releases small molecule drugs for days or weeks into the body. The star shaped design enables it to stay in the stomach without passing through the pylorus while allowing food to continue to pass through.
Most current drug delivery systems achieve this long-lasting effect by being an injectable or implantable, or involve some other invasive procedure. This new capsule is changing the way people take medicines from daily use to just a monthly use.