Novartis to seek regulatory approval for smart pill

In January this year Novartis had agreed to invest $24m to secure access to chip-in-a-pill technology developed by California-based privately held firm Proteus Biomedical, Reuters reported.

The embedded chips, activated by gastric acid, transmit information to a small patch worn on the patient’s skin, which can send data to a smartphone or over the Internet to a doctor.

Initially the Swiss pharma major intends to use the ‘smart-pill’ technology in one of its established drugs taken by kidney and other transplant patients, who frequently need dose adjustments, to avoid organ rejection.

In the longer-term, Novartis hopes to expand the concept to other types of medicine and use the biometric information, from heart rate and temperature to body movement, to verify that drugs are acting properly.

Speaking at the Reuters Health Summit in New York, Novartis Development global head Trevor Mundel said that the concept can be applied to many other pills.

"We are taking forward this transplant drug with a chip and we hope within the next 18 months to have something that we will be able to submit to the regulators, at least in Europe. I see the promise as going much beyond that," Mundel said.