Design of site specific delivery capsule based on MEMS

Site specific delivery capsule (SSDC) is a new method to realize non-invasive drug delivery to the selected sites of the human alimentary tract. With SSDC, non-invasive regional drug absorption (RDA) studies are taken to provide the pharmacokinetics data for oral drug formulation development. In this research, a new SSDC has been developed based on MEMS technology. An innovative drug release actuator was designed with simple and reliable structure, which includes a micro-heater array, an elastomeric bellows and a piston. The power of the compressed elastomeric bellows driven the piston to expelled drug out of the capsule. Piston was adhibited to the micro-heater array by low melting point adhesive. The power consumption of the micro-heater array has been decreased to 450 mJ by MEMS technology. A magnetic marker monitoring (MMM) system was developed to monitor the location of the capsule inside the human alimentary tract by providing three- dimensional location data. We get the pharmacokinetic characteristics data of aminophylline (150 mg) in the proximal small intestine of 12 healthy volunteers with the SSDC.