No More Needles (Again)? P.L.E.A.S.E. Delivers Medicine Without Needles

I've written previously about a microwave circuit which can measure blood sugar painlessly. But for people terrified of needles, that probably hasn't even skimmed the surface of needle-less medicine. One hope for those under medication is painless drug administration gadget, P.L.E.A.S.E. Designed for drugs with large molecular weights, P.L.E.A.S.E. is an intra-epidermal drug delivery technology.

 

 

 

 

Classified as a Laser Easy Drug Delivery Technology (LEDDT) device, P.L.E.A.S.E. has the capacity to create aqueous micro-pores on the epidermis which are about 200 micrometers in diameter. That size is wider than that of other systems', enabling P.L.E.A.S.E. to have a larger area for drug delivery. These pores could be anywhere from 1 to 5,000 in number, depending upon the dosage of the drug.

 

 

Since the P.L.E.A.S.E. system is completely laser-based, it ablates the skin very briefly, eliminating the pain from injections altogether. This painlessness in drug administration stems from the fact that it only touches the epidermis or the upper layer of skin and doesn't reach the dermis where nerves are located. The system is deemed perfectly safe for self-usage even without the help of a doctor. P.L.E.A.S.E., if and when fully developed after its current clinical trial runs, would be most useful for diabetics who need to constantly inject insulin. However, it could also be used for in vitro fertilization and administration of pain medication.

 

 

Source: Pantec Biosolutions via MedGadgets