MicroCHIPS of Bedford, MA, is initiating its first test for its implantable pump to deliver human parathyroid hormone marketed by Eli Lilly as Forteo, a drug that can actually rebuild bone in women with osteoporosis.
Mass High Tech reports that the trial comes some 18 years after MIT professor Robert Langer first envisioned using an implantable reservoir as a drug delivery device.
"MicroCHIPS' clinical study marks an important milestone in the comprehensive research and development of a new approach to drug delivery," said company co-founder Langer in a press release, "MicroCHIPS' breakthrough technologies have the ability to transform therapy in numerous disease states using active and responsive drug delivery devices."
Langer has said that he came up with the idea of using microprocessor-based implantable delivery systems while watching a documentary on microprocessors in 1993.
- read the report in Mass High Tech
- and another on Boston.com