Successful human tests for first wirelessly controlled drug-delivery chip

Clinical trial of the programmable, implantable device shows promise in treating osteoporosis. About 15 years ago, MIT professors Robert Langer and Michael Cima had the idea to develop a programmable, wirelessly controlled microchip that would deliver drugs after implantation in a patient's body. This week, the MIT researchers and scientists from MicroCHIPS Inc. reported that they have successfully used such a chip to administer daily doses of an osteoporosis drug normally given by injection. The results, published in the Feb. 16 online edition of Science Translational Medicine , represent the first successful test of such a device and could help usher in a new era of telemedicine - delivering health care over a distance, Langer says. "You could literally have a pharmacy on a chip," says Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT.