Question: Simon, if you are an industry biomedical engineer, how do you think drug eluting devices will be revived in modified form or will other non-eluting materials replace them?

Simon Marchant answered on 18 Jun 2015:

Right, so I don’t really work in industry, but I am a biomedical engineer, so as promised, I will attempt some kind of answer 🙂

I’m not sure if this is what you meant, but I actually didn’t realise that there was any problem with drug eluting devices – as far as I can tell, they’re being implanted more and more! The most common ones are implanted insulin pumps, which saves diabetic people from having to inject insulin all the time by regularly testing the person’s blood for insulin and releasing some if there isn’t enough; and drug-eluting stents, which are regular stents (these are little meshes of metal that expand inside somebody’s artery and keep it open when it’s at risk of clogging) but with a layer that slowly releases anti-coagulants (stuff that stops blood clotting). But there are other kinds as well, and they’re all really useful and the less people have to be injected and have surgery and things, the better. So I think drug-eluting devices are going to keep getting more popular!