- This topic has 0 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 9 years, 9 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
HP’s printers turn into drugs pushers
HP’s
inkjet tech seeks to replace hypodermic needles,What else can inkjet
technology be used for? Injecting drugs into humans, according to
Hewlett-Packard.
The
company is licensing a medical patch it has developed to Ireland’s
Crospon that potentially can replace hypodermic needles or pills for
delivering vaccines or other types of medication to patients. The patch
contains up to 90,000 microneedles per square inch, microprocessors and
a thermal unit.Medications contained in the patch are heated and then
injected through the needles. Processors can monitor drug delivery,
deliver doses over extended periods of time or deliver drugs in
response to a patient’s vital signs (e.g., blood pressure or heart
rate), depending on how it is programmed.”You can have combinations of
different drugs delivered at different times,” said Joe Beyers, vice
president of HP’s intellectual property licensing group.Nicotine
patches work by letting the skin absorb chemicals. By penetrating the
skin with microscopic needles, the patch can, ideally, deliver dosages
in a more controlled fashion.The technology and equipment used to make
the array of needles was adopted from HP’s inkjet manufacturing, said
Beyers. The heating element is also the same one used inside inkjet
heads.Like IBM, Microsoft and others, HP is combing its patent
portfolio for inventions it can license for royalties. So far, the
effort is paying off. Although HP has to fend off more licensing claims
than ever before, licensing revenue is up tenfold since the technology
licensing group was started four and a half years ago, Beyers said.Back
in 2005, Beyers said that HP garnered about $50 million a year in
revenue from its technology portfolio when it started the group. That
means that HP is around the $500 million a year mark for royalties. In
late 2005-2006, the company was pulling in about $200 million a year on
an annualized basis. (IBM makes more than a billion dollars a year in
royalties.)Among other deals, HP has licensed technology for improving
cell phone cameras to Flextronics. It is also trying to license a
“crossbar latch” technology that it says could replace transistors in
processors or memory chips.Roundup: Core competencies for chipmakers
HP’s inkjet tech seeks to replace hypodermic needles Photos: PowerPod
is green and mod Extra: Seven wonders of the IT worldCrospon was
created around the idea of the patch. HP contacted Enterprise Ireland,
an arm of the Irish government that seeks to help start-ups and
incubate companies. Enterprise Ireland then put the company in contact
with some investors.A relatively low corporate tax rate and a young
population made Ireland a haven for multinational companies like HP and
Intel wanting to set up factories over the past two decades. The
government, however, has begun to encourage more locals to form their
own companies to export technology, said David Smith, senior vice
president of Enterprise Ireland.”We’ve got loads of college grads,” he
said.HP has tested out a prototype of the patch, but has not performed
animal or medical testing. Crospon will accomplish that.Researchers at
the University of California at Berkeley and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology are also trying to commercialize new types of
injection systems.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.