Diabetics given hope by pill that ‘could replace daily jab’

INSULIN tablets which inject the medicine into a diabetic person’s bloodstream after being swallowed have been created and could replace daily injections.

Currently, the only way to administer liquid drugs such as insulin is with injections, and attempts to convert it into tablet form have thus far failed.

But researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk, which specialises in diabetes treatments, have created a new method which was tested on pigs.

It is a blueberry-sized capsule which hosts a retractable needle that delivers the payload into the body before it is retracted.

The technology, called L-SOMA, then passes through the rest of a person’s gut and is excreted in the same way as all other bodily waste, via the lavatory.

“The capsule has two separate triggering springs,” said study author Dr Giovanni Traverso from MIT.

“The first is triggered to facilitate the injection of the drug and the second to retract the needle. The triggering [is] controlled by a dissolving sugar pellet.”

Co-author Ulrik Rahbek, who works for Novo Nordisk, which partly funded the research, added that the pre-clinical trials “have not shown any signs of pain or harm [to the animal]”.

However, he adds that the technology will undergo clinical trials and human tests to assess the safety of the self-injecting tablet.

The study, published in Nature Biotechnology, involved packaging four treatments – insulin, adrenaline, an arthritis anti-inflammatory drug called adalimumab, and an anti-diabetic medication – inside the L-SOMA devices.

Blood samples revealed the tablets administered the drug just as effectively as an injection, proving the needle mechanism was effective.

The findings give hope to many living with chronic health issues that require lifelong daily injections, but also may revolutionise vaccinations, including Covid-19 jabs.

“Our capsule has the capacity to deliver a broad array of payloads including proteins and nucleic acids and therefore could potentially deliver the Covid vaccine,” Dr Traverso said.

“[This] could help some who are hesitant about regular injections.

“Additionally, the capacity to selfadminister systems could reduce complexity in administration of a vaccine or other therapeutic in a mass-administration campaign setting.”