MIT has launched an as-yet unnamed spinout to develop a smart drug-delivery pill to help plan more effective treatment regimens for patients.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has launched an as-yet unnamed US-based spinout to commercialise a 3D-printable drug-delivery pill that would enable doctors to more effectively administer medication dosages, R&D Magazine has reported. The ingestible technology would remain in the patient’s stomach for almost a month, relying on its built-in sensors and wireless Bluetooth transmitters to help professionals judge when medication should be dispersed. MIT hopes the pill will prevent patients with diseases including HIV and malaria from prematurely stopping their regimens, while also stopping potential overdoses of addictive painkillers such as opioids. The capsule contains a star-shaped device with six minuscule retractable arms, each of which includes four small, fillable compartments where drugs and sensors are loaded up for treatment. It dissolves once swallowed so that the device can anchor in the stomach by expanding its arms. Doctors and patients would receive medical information from the sensors via a smartphone app, allowing them to respond based on factors including such as heart rate and blood pressure, or early signs of infection and internal bleeding. The system will be able to communicate wirelessly with other wearable and implantable medical devices. MIT’s design has already completed proof-of-concept studies in pigs and is expected to begin clinical testing within two years. It currently relies on a small silver oxide battery for electricity, however other power sources are being considered, including an external antenna and the patient’s own stomach acid. The pill builds on research from MIT as well as Brigham and Women’s Hospital and nonprofit R&D centre Draper Laboratory co-led by Giovanni Traverso, a visiting scientist in the Department of Mechanical Engineering who is expected to join the faculty in a permanent capacity later in 2019. Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute professor in the same department whose lab specialises in polymer-based drug delivery technologies, also co-led the project.

Subscribe to go deeper

GCV subscribers get access to all our proprietary data and deep-dive articles, as well as the global directory of CVC investors.



Not sure if you have a subscription?