A multi-dose capsule drug delivery system is being developed that could solve one of medicine’s more vexing problems: delivering oral drugs over an extended period of time with one dose. The capsule, once swallowed, expands into a star-shaped form that prevents it from passing into the small intestine but allows other food to pass. It releases medicine over the course of four years ago, before breaking apart and passing through the digestive tract. Currently, fewer than half the world’s patients under treatment for chronic illnesses take their medicine as prescribed, and this could solve the problem of “medication non-adherence.”
A multi-dose capsule drug delivery system is being developed that could solve one of medicine’s more vexing problems: delivering oral drugs over an extended period of time with one dose. The capsule, once swallowed, expands into a star-shaped form that prevents it from passing into the small intestine but allows other food to pass. It releases medicine over the course of days, before breaking apart and passing through the digestive tract. Currently, fewer than half the world’s patients under treatment for chronic illnesses take their medicine as prescribed, and this could solve the problem of “medication non-adherence.”