The world’s top endoscope maker Olympus has joined the race to develop a capsule camera, a disposable device the size of a fingertip that can be easily swallowed to scan the body from the inside.
The Olympus group’s medical products arm said it had developed key technologies for the capsule endoscope, which would navigate through the body without batteries to take images and directly administer drugs.
Olympus Medical Systems said the capsule, which is 2,6cm long and 1,1cm in diameter, could also extract body fluid for analysis and do ultrasound scanning from inside the body for clearer images.
The capsules are powered by a rotating magnetic field and would free patients from the painful ordeal of swallowing an endoscope with fibre-optic cables.
Olympus, which controls about 75% of the world’s endoscope market, said it was to conduct clinical tests soon, with news reports saying the product was likely to be launched within two years.
Another Japanese company, RF System lab, claims to be the world’s first developer of a battery-free capsule endoscope.
Its product, named Norika3 after sexy Japanese actress Norika Fujiwara, is also no bigger than a fingertip at 2,3cm in length and nine millimeters in diameter, and
capable of wireless control.
RF System expects to get approval for use in China in early 2005 amid experiments at hospitals in China and Hong Kong, a company spokesperson said.
”We hope to launch sales in China as soon as we get the approval,” the spokesperson said, adding that China already allowed battery-powered capsule endoscopes made by Giving Imaging of Israel.
The market price for Nokira3 would be about 5 000 yen ($48) each. RF System also plans to file for approval with the US Food and Drug Administration next year before applying in Japan. – Sapa-AFP