عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

Scientists Create ‘Robotic Pill’ to Treat Osteoporosis

An illustration picture taken in Lille on May 7, 2017 shows pills, tablets, caplets and capsules of medicine. / AFP PHOTO / PHILIPPE HUGUEN
An illustration picture taken in Lille on May 7, 2017 shows pills, tablets, caplets and capsules of medicine. / AFP PHOTO / PHILIPPE HUGUEN
TT
20
TT

Scientists Create ‘Robotic Pill’ to Treat Osteoporosis

An illustration picture taken in Lille on May 7, 2017 shows pills, tablets, caplets and capsules of medicine. / AFP PHOTO / PHILIPPE HUGUEN
An illustration picture taken in Lille on May 7, 2017 shows pills, tablets, caplets and capsules of medicine. / AFP PHOTO / PHILIPPE HUGUEN

A proven and effective medication for osteoporosis, which is currently only available as an injection, can be administered orally using a novel “robotic pill”, according to a study presented Saturday at ENDO 2023, the Endocrine Society's annual meeting in Chicago.

“We believe this study provides the first clinical evidence of safe and successful delivery of the osteoporosis drug teriparatide through an oral robotic pill,” said Arvinder Dhalla, who leads Clinical Development at Rani Therapeutics, the company that developed the technology. “Data from this study are very encouraging and should give hope to those suffering from chronic conditions that require painful injections, like osteoporosis,” she added.

When a person swallows the robotic pill, it moves through the stomach intact. In the intestine the pill releases a self-inflating balloon with a microsyringe, which injects a drug-filled microneedle and delivers the medication.

“The intestines do not have pain response to needles, so the injection is painless. The needle rapidly dissolves, and the medication is absorbed while the delivery mechanism deflates and is safely passed out of the body,” Dhalla explained.

“The robotic pill, which is essentially a swallowable auto-injector in the form of a pill, is designed to deliver the drug safely and efficiently as a painless intestinal injection,” she said.

The study of 39 healthy women evaluated the safety, tolerability and movement through the body of the robotic pill known as RT-102, containing a dose of the drug teriparatide (PTH 1-34).

Teriparatide is a synthetic form of the natural human parathyroid hormone. It has been in clinical use for decades as an injectable medication (under the brand name Forteo) for rebuilding brittle bones of osteoporosis patients. It is taken as a daily injection for up to two years.

Study participants were divided into three groups. Two groups received either a lower or higher dose delivered with the robotic pill, and the third group received a standard injection of teriparatide. Fluoroscopic imaging was used to track the robotic pill through and out the body. Drug concentrations were measured in blood samples collected over six hours.

The study found the bioavailability (the ability of the drug to be absorbed and used by the body) of the drug delivered by the robotic pill was comparable to or better than the drug given via the injection.

“This breakthrough technology of converting injections into oral pills is a significant step forward towards ending the burden of painful injections for millions of patients suffering from chronic diseases,” Dhalla concluded.

Most Viewed

 
Varieties

Kenya NGO Saves Turtles from Nets, Plastic and Rising Tides

A matured Loggerhead sea turtle released by staff from Local conservation makes its way back into the ocean, in Watamu on May 23, 2025. (AFP)
A matured Loggerhead sea turtle released by staff from Local conservation makes its way back into the ocean, in Watamu on May 23, 2025. (AFP)
TT
20
TT

Kenya NGO Saves Turtles from Nets, Plastic and Rising Tides

A matured Loggerhead sea turtle released by staff from Local conservation makes its way back into the ocean, in Watamu on May 23, 2025. (AFP)
A matured Loggerhead sea turtle released by staff from Local conservation makes its way back into the ocean, in Watamu on May 23, 2025. (AFP)

A small charity on the Kenyan coast has become vital to the region's majestic turtle population, saving thousands from poachers, fishermen's nets and ever-worsening plastic pollution.

On the beach of the seaside town of Watamu, it takes four men to heave the huge Loggerhead sea turtle into the back of a car.

She has just been saved from a fishing tackle and will be taken to a nearby clinic to be checked for injuries, then weighed, tagged and released back into the sea.

A Kenyan NGO, Local Ocean Conservation (LOC), has been doing this work for almost three decades and has carried out some 24,000 rescues.

"Every time I release a turtle, it's a really great joy for me. My motivation gets stronger and stronger," said Fikiri Kiponda, 47, who has been part of LOC's 20-odd staff for 16 years.

LOC began life in 1997 as a group of volunteers who hated seeing the creatures being eaten or dying in nets.

Turtles are still poached for their shells, meat and oil.

But through the charity's awareness campaigns in schools and villages, "perceptions have significantly changed", said Kiponda.

LOC, which relies mostly on donations, compensates fishermen for bringing them injured turtles.

More than 1,000 fishermen participate in the scheme and mostly do so for the sake of conservation, the charity emphasizes, since the reward does not offset the hours of lost labor.

- Floating turtles -

At the NGO's nearby clinic, health coordinator Lameck Maitha, 34, says turtles are often treated for broken bones and tumors caused by a disease called Fibropapillomatosis.

One current in-patient is Safari, a young Olive Ridley turtle around 15 years old -- turtles can live beyond 100 -- transported by plane from further up the coast.

She arrived in a dire state, barely alive and with a bone protruding from her flipper, which ultimately had to be amputated -- likely the result of fighting to free herself from a fisherman's net.

Safari has been recovering well and the clinic hopes she can return to the sea.

Other frequent tasks include removing barnacles that embed themselves in shells and flippers, weakening their host.

But a growing danger is plastic pollution.

If a turtle eats plastic, it can create a blockage that in turn creates gas, making the turtle float and unable to dive.

In these cases, the clinic gives the turtle laxatives to clear out its system.

"We are seeing more and more floating turtles because the ocean has so much plastic," said Maitha.

- Survivors -

LOC also works to protect 50 to 100 nesting sites, threatened by rising sea levels.

Turtles travel far and wide but always lay their eggs on the beach where they were born, and Watamu is one of the most popular spots.

Every three or four years, they produce hundreds of eggs, laid during multiple sessions over several months, that hatch after around 60 days.

The charity often relocates eggs that have been laid too close to the sea.

Marine biologist Joey Ngunu, LOC's technical manager, always calls the first to appear Kevin.

"And once Kevin comes out, the rest follow," he said with a smile, describing the slow, clumsy procession to the water, preferably at night to avoid predators as much as possible.

Only one in a thousand reaches adulthood of 20-25 years.

"Living in the sea as a turtle must be crazy. You have to face so many dangers, fish and poachers, and now human pressure with plastic and commercial fishing," he said.

"Turtles are definitely survivors."