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Implanted devices have been in use for decades to deliver certain drugs (typically, a single drug via a specific blood vessel that supplies relevant organs). Now, a multi-institutional team reports that it has developed an implantable chip that can release precise amounts of various drugs, over many days and at specific times, in response to wireless commands.
Chips were implanted in eight postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. Doses of human parathyroid hormone fragment (1-34) — marketed in the U.S. as FORTEO — were released daily for 20 days. Measurement of bone turnover markers indicated bone formation, an outcome similar to that when FORTEO is given by daily injection; thus, the chip achieved the same short-term pharmacologic effect. Al…