THE SMART CAPSULE THAT COULD REPLACE INJECTIONS

Injections, needles and invasive infusions often trigger high anxiety and aversion among many patients worldwide. Medical surveys reveal that some 20 percent of patients who require such treatments suffer needle-phobia, often avoiding therapy entirely. Many others struggle to inject their medication correctly or adhere to treatment schedules. Unsurprisingly, 60 percent of patients express clear preference for daily oral pills over injections or infusions — even when injections are required less frequently.

The demand for oral drug delivery has grown significantly in recent years, especially with the development of biologic medicines that target autoimmune diseases such as arthritis, psoriasis and Crohn's disease, as well as chronic conditions like diabetes, obesity, endocrine disorders and various cancers. This represents a multi-billion-dollar market and provides a solution to one of the most pressing problems facing many patients: simultaneously improving their quality of care and their quality of life.

Fast and Effective Drug Delivery
Alma Therapeutics, an Israeli startup attracting global pharmaceutical attention, has developed a groundbreaking smart capsule designed to solve this problem and revolutionize that way biologics such as mAbs and peptides are administrated.

"The medical community and patients alike are eager for a breakthrough that replaces injections with painless, non-invasive oral treatment," says Alma Therapeutics CEO Yuval Amiri, a former executive at Teva and Perrigo.

"That's exactly the promise of our smart capsule, which enables patients to take biological drugs orally, with the same therapeutic effect as an injection."

How Does It Work?
The capsule is coated with a special material that resists stomach acidic environment, allowing it to arrive intact into the small intestine, explains Amiri. "Once there, the device inside it activates, inflates and pushes a soluble polymer element together with the drug into the intestinal wall. After dissolving, the drug enters the bloodstream.
"You could say it bypasses the body's natural mechanisms, since the digestive system is designed to break down protein-based drugs like biologics," he continues. "The patient doesn't feel anything because the the intestine lacks sharp pain receptors. The result is a therapeutic effect identical to an injection, minus the pain or fear."

Moving Forward
Currently in the preclinical phase, Alma Therapeutics plans to initiate clinical trials, following successful animal studies. The company has already secured three grants from the Israel Innovation Authority and, following its promising initial results, signed an agreement with an international pharmaceutical company to develop an oral form of a monoclonal antibody (mAb) injection, one of the world's top-selling medications.

"Once we gather enough data, we'll move to human trials, which I believe will be within the coming two years," says Amiri. "Our current goal is to establish collaborations with more global pharma companies, along with developing our fully owned projects."

Engineering Principles Transforming Drug Delivery
What is unique about the Alma Therapeutics capsule is its application of engineering principles to delivering biological drugs.
"This is a cutting-edge fusion of biology and engineering (bioconvergence), delivering a groundbreaking solution to a complex biologic challenge" says Amiri. "Until very recently, it was considered science fiction. But it's rapidly becoming reality and is set to dramatically improve the lives of patients around the world."

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In collaboration with Alma Therapeutics