Contraceptive Implant Hails New Era of Birth Control

A fingernail-sized implant holds enough 30-microgram daily doses of levonorgestrel to provide contraception for 16 years.

Developed by MicroCHIPS (Lexington, MA, USA), a MIT (Cambridge, MA, USA) startup, the device, which measures just 20 x 20 x 7 millimeters, is designed to be implanted under the skin of the buttocks, upper arm, or abdomen. It then dispenses a daily dose levonorgestrel from a reservoir sealed with a titanium and platinum hermetic stopper. Passing an electric current through the stopper melts it temporarily, allowing a 30-microgram dose of the hormone to diffuse out each day.

Women who receive the implant also get a remote control that allows them to halt or restart the implant on demand; to conceive, women turn off the implant with a remote control; another click of the remote restarts it. Doctors could also adjust dosages remotely. MicroCHIPS have previously demonstrated how the microchip technology could release daily doses of an osteoporosis drug. The new application could revolutionize the level of control women have over their birth control technologies.

The technology also includes a secure encryption protocol to prevent outsiders from blocking or reprogramming the implants wirelessly. Another safety factor is that the device is triggered remotely by radio communication over a special frequency called Medical Implant Communication Service (MICS), which only works over a very short distance, almost requiring skin contact to function. The device will begin preclinical testing in the US in 2015, with the goal of market approval by 2018. The study describing the technology was published on July 4, 2014, in MIT Technology Review.

“The idea of using a thin membrane like an electric fuse was the most challenging and the most creative problem we had to solve,” said Robert Farra, president of MicroCHIPS. “We have heard a lot of positive feedback. Women are excited about the capability to change the state of an implant without having to go through another procedure to have it removed. They like the long-term medication, and not having to remember to take medication each day.”

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