11th January 2023 by Aditya Jain | Pharmaceutical
INTRODUCTION
Smart pills are digital technology pills, in which electronic sensors are embedded to transfer messages to tablets or smartphones outside the body after ingestion. It is an advanced technology that reflects internal diagnostic images of the person. They are designed to take the electronic device into pharmaceutical capsules for sensing, imagining, and drug delivery. It can replace the typical endoscopy method of a long tube with a camera and light to monitor images of the intestinal tract.
They are dissolvable chips, made from copper and magnesium which are absorbed by the body easily. It works after the ingestion, moves into the gastrointestinal tract, and records the data. The capsule is made digitally, that contains dissolvable chips, sensors, cameras, batteries, and additional antennae. The data is covered by the pill after which the electrolytes of the body can activate the signals and transmitted them to a Band like a patch worn on the abdomen of the patient. At last, the signals received by the belt are sent to a smartphone or computer of the doctor. It can help you with your medication instructions promptly. Providing proper diagnostic images without any scanning or big machines reduces the time to take multiple testing. Provide accurate reposts or testing which may not be seen with ultrasound and colonoscopy without any visit to the clinic. It can benefit elderly or disabled people to avoid unnecessary stress in traveling and multiple testing.
Digital therapeutics are the digitally interpreted information by software to treat, diagnose and prevent any disorder. Devices connected to patients to gather information like insulin pumps, blood glucose meters, wearable gadgets, etc. Increasing the role of technology in day-to-day life, the role of digital therapeutics in healthcare is dominating. The use of digital therapeutics with medicine can improve the treatment method in the health industry. Pharma companies patterned with the tech companies to develop digital medications. It is estimated that the digital therapeutics market is tending to grow by $10 billion by 2028. Smart medicines are invented in which cameras, batteries, and other electronic equipment are embedded to view live images of the infected area to cure.
The market size of smart pills will reach a CAGR of 25.39% of $09 billion by 2026. The industry of smart pills can takeoff gastrointestinal diagnoses in healthcare. There is a steady growth seen in the past few years and the market will be twice in near future. Diseases like gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and gastric ulcers can boost the smart pills market growth. Research and Development sectors are vigorously working for the improvement of the smart pill industry. Pharmaceutical companies are more focused on health app publishing and partnered with tech companies to improve medications.
The smart Pills market is segmented into three; capsule endoscopy, drug delivery, and patient monitoring.
CAPSULE ENDOSCOPY - Capsule endoscopy shared the largest market in the smart pill market. It can replace the traditional endoscopy, and avoid the typical use of a long tube with a camera and light, which is inserted from the throat to the intestine.
DRUG DELIVERY – Smart Pill can carry the drug into your body and release them in a particular part. Normally, any medicine taken by the patient is first absorbed by the stomach and small intestine after to the large intestine. Ideally, it takes 12 hours for a normal medicine to get to the large intestine. Smart Pill Drug Delivery can hit the target directly to the large intestine without any complications. A belt with a magnet is worn by the patient where capsules get to the large intestine and come close to the magnet, activate the switch, and release the medication.
PATIENT MONITORING – Smart Pill can monitor the gastrointestinal tract (stomach, small bowel, and colon). The capsule can get to your digestive tract and transmit signals to your physician. They are inbuilt with camera-capturing images in real-time with clarity. There is no need for an endoscopy’s long tube with a camera and light to sight inside the body. It can measure the temperature, pH value, and pressure. After completion of the work, it can come out with a bowel movement after 10 – 70 hours.
REGIONAL OUTLOOK
North America leads in the smart pills market. Where FDA, approved the smart pill technology products used publicly. The government and many big companies have already taken some initiatives to introduce smart pills in hospitals and clinics. Canada witnessed the highest cases of IBD and it will continue to rise to 0.9% of the total population by 2028. The population living with IBD by 2018 was approximately 270,000. The prevalence of IBD in Canada may be the reason for the western diets, which are treated or diagnosed by typical Endoscopy. A smart pill is more assessable than the endoscopy method. The technological advancement in the smart pill can provide endoscopic procedures without having all of the typical stuff of traditional endoscopy. Endoscopy evokes anxiety in patients which leads to the avoidance or threat of endoscopy. People are more shifted towards the Smart Pill method to avoid unnecessary methods. The scope of the Smart pill market in Canada is increased by 2028.
On 23rd September of 2020, CapsoVision a leading company in smart pills in the United States announced that FDA (Food and drug administration) is exercising the enforcement discretion during the pandemic to allow home execution of CapsoCam Plus® small bowel capsule endoscope. It can reduce the COVID exposure and complete the procedure remotely without any interaction between the patient and medical staff. The procedure is done at home without visiting an in-person clinic and provides high-tech diagnostic images with 360° panoramic views by physicians through CaspoCloud software from any place. It is a crowning achievement in the telehealthcare sector.
On the 14th of January, 2021, etectRx strikes a partnership with Pear Therapeutics to develop two new products. The companies shake hands to bring medication adherence data with digital therapeutics on the same platform. Here, the specialization of etectRx’s medication adherence sensors is combined with the specialization of Pear’s digital therapeutics to develop new products in digital medications.
After clinically trial or approval by the FDA (Food and drug administration) Smart Pill are in use. It was the first human used in 2017 by US Food and Drug Administration as a depressive disorder drug. It is getting difficult for people to ingest such types of medicines that contain microchips, cameras, and batteries. Scientists, researchers, and the Government are aware society about the positive effects of medicine.
The use of Smart Pill can eliminate the threat of traditional endoscopy. People are getting more shifted toward the solution of endoscopy. Smart Pills are the safest and the easiest method to detect a severe diagnosis without any ultrasound and scan or endoscopy.
Innovations in the health care sector with technology can make historic changes in technology, including medical devices, IT systems, algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, and blockchain. Smart Pill is one of the major digital medication inventions, which allows microchips to ingest by humans and transmit diagnostic images without any scanning or big machines. The market is tending to grow by $09 billion in 2026. It can revolutionize the health care industry and replaces the old method of imaging, scanning, and endoscopy. Smart Pills can deliver the drug to the large intestine directly, whereas normal medicine takes 12 hours to get it to the large intestine. It is used to monitor the gastrointestinal tract where doctors can diagnose the disease from anywhere. Pharmaceutical companies are most active to use technology to deliver a drug or detect the disease. They are publishing health apps to directly interpret results on mobile technology. Online health apps can provide prescription services, telemonitoring, real-time monitoring, and early diagnosis through digital medications. Smart Pills are connected to smartphones where you can get the live images in real-time, the band connected externally on your abdomen received signals or images from the chips inside the Smart Pills. The future market for smart pills is high, and people are getting more reliable with this method. It can replace all of the methods your doctor uses to monitor PH, pressure, transit time, and temperature throughout your entire gastrointestinal tract. A small object can replace all the old methods to monitor the GI tract, and give access to regulate real-time data imaging from anywhere.