Nov 9, 2010

Rx containing microchips at a pharmacy near you?

Look out, your medicine may soon be watching you.

Novartis AG, a Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company plans to seek regulatory approval for a new tablet containing an embedded microchip.

The initial program will use one of the Swiss firm's established drugs taken by transplant patients to avoid organ rejection. But Trevor Mundel, global head of development, believes the concept can be applied to many other pills.

The report at the link below says:

The chip is designed collect heart rate and temperature to body movement to check that drugs are working properly.

Because the tiny chips are added to existing drugs, Novartis does not expect to have to conduct full-scale clinical trials to prove the new products work. Instead, it aims to do so-called bioequivalence tests to show they are the same as the original.

A bigger issue may be what checks should be put in place to protect patients' personal medical data as it is transmitted from inside their bodies by wireless and Bluetooth.

More about these 'Big Brother' pills here.