The pharmaceutical development and testing industry has implemented the same archaic and inefficient methods for years. This lack of progress has prohibited a very important part of our society from flourishing and reaching its full potential. The product has been stunted and underdeveloped due to the enormous cost and time that current processes take. The pharmaceutical industry is underperforming due to lack of technology and innovation. The worst part is, the technology that will change all this is already theorized and near completion. It just needs the funding required for the last bit of research.
Body-on-a-Chip offers the promise of a revolution that the pharmaceutical industry has been waiting for. Rather than the current standard of the animal model, the drug testing would be done on a biomimicry of the human body. The Body-on-a-Chip employs multiple different Organs-on-Chips which, in a vacuum, react exactly as a human organ would react under certain conditions. So, if a company wants to test a new drug that they created, they know with almost one-hundred percent certainty how it would react in an actual human organ. The Body-on-a-Chip, if completed, would offer a way to connect all of these functioning Organs-on-Chips and mimic a fully functioning human body. This will expedite testing and the new products will be better and developed faster.
The Organs-on-Chips function as a normal human organ would in reaction to chemicals, hormones, drugs etc. If you took a human kidney out of the body and tested it, the kidney-on-a-chip would react very similarly. The only problem is, the network in the human body is very complex and the way the organs interact with each other is key in determining what side effects a drug will have or if it will even work. If Body-on-a-Chip can be completed, it offers a way to connect the chips and simulates the complex interworking of the human body.
Not only will this have a tremendous effect financially for the pharmaceutical companies, but it will for the consumer as well. It can be expected that if cost of production goes down, the cost of the product will go down as well. Companies should be expected to produce better products for cheaper cost.
From a financial standpoint, Body-on-a-Chip will be revolutionary to the drug testing industry. However, it will be revolutionary from a humanities perspective as well. The pharmaceutical industry is driven by financial gain as much as any other industry; however, the product made is meant to improve society and the human life. Finding a way to improve this industry should be of high priority for our society, especially if a product like Body-on-a-Chip is so close to being complete. It would not only be faster but essentially one hundred percent accurate in its results. The drug testing companies would also be able to test in high quantities which would increase speed as well.
The only issue that remains from today and the “utopian society” previously described is that the Body-on-a-Chip is not complete. The Organs-on-Chips all work and have been proven to exhibit all of the same reactions as there organ counterparts; however, connecting them together in order to mimic the complex system in the human body continues to elude researchers. That being said, it seems less of a question of “if” and more of a question of “when”. Researchers seem confident that this obstacle will be overcome; however funding is necessary. Completion of the product will not only bring success to the pharmaceutical industry but anyone that uses any sort of drug as well. It is paramount that funding be directed towards research to figure out a way to connect the Organs-on-Chips. Healthcare and overall standard of living should be priorities and a product that increases both should be the only subject of discussion until it is complete. It should be known that the completion of Body-on-a-Chip is on the horizon and attention should be paid to the revolution that is about to occur.