GeorgiaTech - Georgia Institute of Technology

07/08/2025 | News release | Distributed by Public on 07/08/2025 09:40

These ‘Exploding’ Capsules Could Deliver Insulin Without a Needle

These 'Exploding' Capsules Could Deliver Insulin Without a Needle

Engineers use sodium bicarb to "self-pressurize" a pill able to deliver drugs that usually require injection directly to the small intestine.
[Link]
Jul 08, 2025

Georgia Tech engineers have created a pill that could effectively deliver insulin and other injectable drugs, making medicines for chronic illnesses easier for patients to take, less invasive, and potentially less expensive.

Along with insulin, it also could be used for semaglutide - the popular GLP-1 medication sold as Ozempic and Wegovy - and a host of other top-selling protein-based medications like antibodies and growth hormone that are part of a $400 billion market.

These drugs usually have to be injected because they can't overcome the protective barriers of the gastrointestinal tract. Georgia Tech's new capsule uses a small pressurized "explosion" to shoot medicine past those barriers in the small intestine and into the bloodstream. Unlike other designs, it has no complicated moving parts and requires no battery or stored energy.

"This study introduces a new way of drug delivery that is as easy as swallowing a pill and replaces the need for painful injections," said Mark Prausnitz, who created the pill in his lab with former Ph.D. student Joshua Palacios and other student researchers.

In animal lab tests, they showed their capsule lowered blood sugar levels just like traditional insulin injections. The researchers reported their pill design and study results DATE in the Journal of Controlled Release.

Read about the technology on the College of Engineering website.

GeorgiaTech - Georgia Institute of Technology published this content on July 08, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on July 08, 2025 at 15:40 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at support@pubt.io