Patients who depend on treatment based on injectable drugs suffer daily with a routine full of limitations. In addition to frequent visits to the doctor, there is also the discomfort of dealing with needles.
This is the daily life of millions of patients with type 2 diabetes , for example, who depend on injectable insulin.
However, a study by Harvard researchers, Novo Nordisk and guided by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) proved that through a pill the insulin can travel to the stomach and reach the blood, eliminating the need for needles.
The discovery is called SOMA and its structure is similar to a pill or capsule with fragments of insulin inside.
However, nothing is that simple.
It is a robotic device that only releases the substance when it comes into contact with the stomach, making it go all the way intact, that is, without suffering any damage by the action of the digestive system.
During the research and development of SOMA, it was observed that the device, upon reaching the stomach region, caused pressure on the organ wall, making insulin easily reach the bloodstream.
However, the structure of the capsule – which cannot be digested – follows the same path as food, passing through the colon until it is eliminated in the feces.
