At the Crohn’s & Colitis Congress in January a new revolutionary medication delivery system was unveiled by SmartTab. They are working towards a wireless ‘smart’ pill that will release at exact points in the gut where you need the medicine the most. This exciting innovation could replace biologics as we know them. It would eliminate the need for needles, injections, or infusions. They also have theorized that if you are getting the medication where you need it, you won’t need as big of a dosage since it only dissolves in those spots and not all over your body. This would lead to less work for your liver and kidneys, which are always under scrutiny on such medications, and lead to a lessening of side effects as well. SmartTab has three ways of delivery in the works. TargetTab, InjectTab, and MultiTab. Let’s take a look at these three exciting up and coming medical advances.
TargetTab is a capsule for ingestion, that pinpoints specific locations to release the medication based on a radio frequency. Before prescribing TargetTab technologies, your gastroenterologist will do a colonoscopy and note places in the intestines with excessive inflammation. Once they know that, they place external patches on the places they noted. It does this through radio frequencies from the patch. So far TargetTab has been tested on animals, but positive results were achieved. SmartTab will start human trials soon. Once they receive FDA approval, they hope to partner with pharmaceuticals to use the technology to deliver steroids, immunosuppressants, and JAX inhibitors.
Next, we have InjectTab. This is a way to deliver biologics needle free. I am particularly excited to hear this as I have a huge needle/blood phobia and have to face it every other month with infusions. This capsule would work by being ingested on an empty stomach. Once the pill settles in the bottom of the stomach it will ‘inject’ the biologic through an implant. This implant dissolves quickly after giving the medicine, and would allow for immediate absorption. This would be revolutionary in not only the world of IBD, but biologics as a whole. Human trials will begin soon for InjectTab as well.
Finally, we have MultiTab. MultiTab works by residing in the stomach for a week to automatically continuously release medication when you need it. By having a steadier stream, not only could you possibly reduce your dosage, but you would avoid ‘dips’ before your next dose. Many times, when IBD patients are close to their next dose of biologics, they may experience a recurrence of symptoms because the medicine has been completely metabolized by their body. This could greatly help patient’s overall quality of life.
These exciting innovations are still in the early stages of development, but hold a light to the future of treatment for IBD patients. SmartTab hopes to conduct human trials on TargetTab and InjectTab sometime this year. After human trials, SmartTab will partner with pharmaceutical companies to conduct trials with the medications to determine dosage and safety profile. After that, SmartTab will seek FDA approval. While this is a process, and will take some time, I am excited for the future of IBD treatment and care. Keep an eye out for news from SmartTab in the coming months!
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