IntelliCap – accelerating drug development with the world’s most advanced electronic capsule system

Jeff Shimizu, Medimetrics Personalized Drug Delivery
Vicki Ronaldson, Bio-Images Research

“I have a smart phone in my pocket that can do more than a whole room of equipment could just six years ago. So why does a billion dollar drug development program depend so much on best guesses and white powders? If I could control how the drug is delivered in the body and know how it actually travelled in each subject, things would run much better.”

In an exciting partnership of electronics and pharmaceutics, Medimetrics Personalized Drug Delivery are collaborating with Bio-Images Research to bring IntelliCap, the most advanced electronic drug delivery capsule to date, to the forefront of clinical research.

IntelliCap is a groundbreaking system that allows unparalleled control in drug delivery for rapid, reliable candidate screening.

What is IntelliCap?

Medimetrics’ IntelliCap is a wirelessly controlled, electronic capsule system that delivers formulations to user-defined regions of the gastrointestinal tract for regional absorption studies. The 11 mm x 26 mm (approximately ‘000’ sized) CE-marked device is composed of a microprocessor, battery, pH sensor, temperature sensor, wireless transceiver, fluid pump and drug reservoir capable of storing up to 275 µL of test compound. It communicates via its wireless transceiver to an external control unit worm by the subject.


What makes it different?

IntelliCap is the first device that allows patient-specific drug delivery by combining electronically controlled drug delivery with real-time monitoring and patient communication. Moreover, unlike existing electronic delivery systems, it allows completely responsive, customizable release profiles, rather than single-pulse release of the entire payload. Delayed, extended and multiple pulsed release profiles are all achievable with ease.

How scintigraphy adds value to IntelliCap clinical studies

Leading experts in clinical scintigraphy for drug delivery studies, Bio-Images Research, have partnered with Medimetrics to make IntelliCap available to the pharmaceutical industry as an advanced clinical research tool.

Radiolabelling and scintigraphic monitoring of IntelliCap allows unequivocal confirmation of its position within the GI tract at any given moment, affording unrivalled precision in targeting drug delivery. This increases confidence that the drug is released at the desired site, maximizing the value of clinical studies and potentially reducing patient numbers.

Further information

For further information on IntelliCap technology, visit www.medimetrics.com
For further information on IntelliCap clinical research services, visit www.bio-images.co.uk