Painless robotic pill passes first human trial to deliver drug in intestines

Robot pills to deliver drugs inside bodies have already been created, but a new robot pill for intestines has just passed its first human trial as well.

The futuristic, painless robotic pill, named the RaniPill, has been developed by Rani Therapeutics. After going through 100 animal studies, the pill successfully completed a human trial as well, paving way to be revolutionizing the way people inject drugs.

The pill is designed to puncture the inside of the intestinal wall with a drug-filled needle due to an inflatable balloon. The first human tests successfully tested the inflatable balloon part of the design, with the drug-filled needled used to treat a hormone disorder to be tested in the second human trial.

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As per Futurism, as soon as the pill is swallowed, it makes its way to the intestines where its shell dissolves. The RaniPill then releases two gases that mix to create carbon dioxide. This inflates a balloon that pushes a dissolvable needle into the intestinal wall, without the use of any metal or springs.

The human trial conducted consisted of 20 subjects, half of which ate before swallowing the pill while half of them fasted. Food barely impacted, but just slowed down the time took to pass the remnants of the pill. Numerous X-rays also verified the location of the pill as it made its way through the subjects’ bodies.

What’s more interesting is that one won’t even notice the presence of any inflating balloon inside the intestines. The firm claims that the RaniPill is totally painless unlike injection through skin, and could also lower cost of injection for most drugs.

As per IEEE Spectrum, RaniPill inventor Mir Imran has also swallowed the pill ‘quite a few’ times, sometimes without even requiring water.