Philips’s intelligent pill may treat digestive tract disorders

Heerlen, Netherlands, February 2: A new intelligent pill technology developed by the Dutch electronics giant, Philips, may help cure life-threatening digestive tract diseases.

Dr. Peter van der Schaar, a gastroenterologist in Heerlen, said that the ‘Intelligent Pill’, which the company calls iPill, is a plastic capsule, same size as that of a camera pill. Dr. Peter worked with Philips in developing iPill.

One third of iPill contains medicine i.e. drug reservoir, and the remaining part of the capsule consists a microprocessor, battery, wireless radio, pH sensor, temperature sensor and fluid pump.

The iPill is swallowed with food or water just like other pills and then it passes through the digestive system naturally. The iPill finds out its location via a pH sensor that measures the acidity of the environment, and a tiny pump inside the pill releases the drug at the location where it is needed.

The capsule can also measure local temperature and send data to a control station, which the medical staff can then respond to accordingly.

“If a doctor sees an adverse reaction,” said Steve Klink, a senior communications manager at Philips Research, a signal can be sent “to override the iPill and not distribute any more of the drug.”

Philips Electronics states that by delivering the required drugs directly to the site of disease through the iPill, dose levels may be lowered and many of the side effects that tend to occur due to some drugs could be reduced.

Michael J. Cima, a professor of materials science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an investigator at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancerdefine Research, said that soon the localized electronic drug delivery might play an important role in patient care.

He said, “You could put a drug to treat colondefine cancer or irritable bowel syndrome at a select location in the G.I. tract with great fidelity; it could be the next step in therapy.”