Device provides long-lasting drug delivery

“This really opens the door to ultra-long-lasting oral systems, which could have an effect on all kinds of diseases, such as Alzheimer’s or mental health disorders. There are a lot of exciting things this could someday enable.”

“This is a platform into which you can incorporate any drug,” added Mousa Jafari, PhD, of MIT. “This can be used with any drug that requires frequent dosing. We can replace that dosing with a single administration.”

This type of delivery could also help researchers run better clinical trials by making it easier for patients to take the drugs, said Shiyi Zhang, PhD, of MIT.

“It may help doctors and the pharma industry to better evaluate the efficacy of certain drugs because, currently, a lot of patients in clinical trials have serious medication adherence problems that will mislead the clinical studies,” he said.