Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Getting Insulin Without The Prick? High-Tech Pill Would Inject Drugs Into The Stomach
The New York Times: A High-Tech Pill To End Drug Injections
Here was the challenge for bioengineers: Find a way to for patients to take drugs — like insulin or monoclonal antibodies used to treat cancers and other diseases — without injections. The medicines are made of molecules too big to be absorbed through the stomach or intestines; in any event, the drugs would be quickly degraded by the body’s harsh digestive system. Now, a team of scientists may have found a solution that delivers these drugs in a capsule a person can swallow. Their inspiration? A tortoise that always rights itself after rolling over. (Kolata, 2/7)
The Associated Press: Pea-Sized Pill Delivers Insulin Shot From Inside The Stomach
The new invention, reported Thursday by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology-led research team, has been tested only in animals so far. But if it pans out, it might offer a work-around to make not just insulin but a variety of usually injected medicines a little easier to take. "It's like a miniaturized rocket launcher" for insulin, said Willem Mulder of Mount Sinai's Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute, who wasn't involved in the new research. (2/7)
NPR: Insulin 'Pill' Could Replace A Shot Someday, Researchers Say
"We chose the stomach as the site of delivery because we recognized that the stomach is a thick and robust part of the GI tract," Traverso says. Once the device gets into the stomach, the humidity there allows the spring to launch the insulin dart. So far so good, but Traverso says there was a problem the team had to overcome: "How do we get these devices to self-orient such that the end that is doing the injecting part is in direct contact with a tissue?" (Palca, 2/7)
In other health and technology news —
Stat: Once Just For Insiders, HIMSS Conference Embraces Consumer Tech Giants
Health care’s digital transformation will take center stage in Orlando, Fla., next week at the industry’s most influential technology conference, a gathering whose exponential growth is a metaphor for the change sweeping through one of America’s biggest economic sectors. Once a meeting of a few thousand health technology insiders, the annual conference of the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) now attracts more than 40,000 attendees and some of the world’s biggest companies. (Ross, 2/8)
