The painless bite is a little the Grail of medicine, we have been looking for years. There is now a capsule that opens in the stomach, with a mechanism that releases a mini-syringe that is planted in the muscle of the intestine. Developed by Rani Therapeutics, the first capsule of its kind has been successfully tested on humans. It is therefore very likely to be marketed.
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A painless process
The idea is very simple: just put the needle in a small capsule and swallow it, with a glass of water like any medicine. Once in the intestine, its shell will dissolve and will reveal a mechanism that will plant the famous needle in the wall of the intestine and perform the injection.
A painless process because this wall has no acute pain receptor, so we will feel absolutely nothing. This device was recently tested on fifty patients for cancer treatment, and none of them felt pain, not even discomfort.
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Almost all intramuscular injections could now be done by this process. It is therefore a major advance in the administration of treatments, and in particular for diabetics, who must increase insulin injections. Emergency physicians, who sometimes find it difficult to make their patients forget the size of the syringe, could also see real progress in these capsules.