Injection or infusion therapies could be replaced by new oral capsule

An MIT-led research team has developed a drug capsule that could be used to deliver oral doses of insulin and perhaps one day replace the daily injections type 1 diabetics have to endure.
The capsule contains a small needle, the tip of which is made of almost 100% compressed, freeze-dried insulin, and the shaft of the needle, which does not enter the stomach wall, is made from another biodegradable material. The needle is attached to a compressed spring that is held in place by a disk made of sugar. When the capsule is swallowed, water in the stomach dissolves the sugar disk, releasing the spring and injecting the needle into the stomach wall. The insulin then dissolves at a rate that can be controlled by the researchers as the capsule is prepared, and passes through the digestive system. The system has been designed in such a way that regardless of how the capsule lands in the stomach, it can orient itself so the needle is in contact with the stomach lining.
Robert Langer, the David H Koch Institute Professor, a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and one of the senior authors of the study, said: “We are really hopeful that this new type of capsule could someday help diabetic patients and perhaps anyone who requires therapies that can now only be given by injection or infusion.”