Microneedle Drug-Delivery Patches May Replace Syringes One Day

--Read More In: Better Living Through Chemistry | Bio-Tech | Disease | News

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University, UC Santa Barbara and Zosano Pharma are hard at work drying the tears of little children, de-freaking the phobics and the Adrian Monks of the world.

In the works, is a small, sometimes gel-dissolvable patch bristling with teeny-tiny needles. The purpose: get drugs into the body that would ordinarily be administered by means originally designed as much for physical pain and psychological torture as they were for chemical-delivery.
-And always administered in the Ministry of Love's Room 101.

In whatever form they take, either gelatinized cast media, or drug powder-coated solid material patches, the net effect on the patient is the same.

It's like gluing a very mildly-abrasive square of sandpaper to your arm for a short while.

Oh, and no paint-shredding screaming tirades of, 'WHYYYYYY DOC, WHYYYY!!!!! ... MOOMMM!!! I WANT MY MOOMMMM!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH..."

"Er, Jim? -You're Forty-Seven..."
[uncontrollable sobbing ensues...]

And while the original intent of the new delivery system may have been just to reduce pain and soothe neurotic patients, an interesting side-effect has come out in the trials.

Not only are the microneedle patches less scary, uncomfortable and distressing, but:

JUMP BONUS!:
***In some cases, the net effect of the drug/vaccination was actually BETTER with patch-injection than single-needle-into-muscle/tissue method!

So...: WIN-WIN!

(the gel ones also eliminate some biological waste in the form of "sharps", +win again!)

Photo: Microneedle Sheet Micrograph, by Zosano Pharma

Source:
Nature-Dissolving Polymer Microneedle Patches..., Access
Journal of Pain-Effect of Microneedle Design...

via:
Amber Dance, LaTimes
Neatorama

More Coverage:
CNN-PagingDrGupta w/Video (PLEASE TO IGNORE ALI VELSHI'S ZOMG, DUDE!!! --12,000 PEOPLE DEAD IN 2010! TEH SKY IS FALLING! WE'RE, ALL, GONNA, ...DIIIIIEEEEE!!! FEAR-MONGERING ktxbai)
Zosano Pharma

Posted by Will on 08/21/10 | Comments (0) | Email to a friend |

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