The American company Becton, Dickinson & Co seems to have found an alternative to blood sampling needles with a technology that involves the capillary vascular system
Blood tests painless and without needles: it is not the first time that it has been talked about but this time it could be a realistic prospect after one of the major scandals in the world of Venture Capital.
The last to propose abandoning traditional blood tests, in fact, was Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, the Silicon Valley start-up launched in the early 2000s. She had been defined as the heir to Steve Jobs and even wore black turtlenecks like him.
Holmes was the protagonist of a great ride in which the company raised enormous capital, she ended up on the covers of the most prestigious magazines and the product, in the end, didn’t really reach the market because... it didn’t exist.
The story is also told in the mini-series "The Dropout".
Theranos had reached a valuation of 9 billion dollars. However, in 2015, Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou revealed that the technology didn’t work and that Elizabeth Holmes had covered up the failure.
This time, the company behind this new technology is authoritative and it is not an unknown start-up: Becton, Dickinson & Co. has existed for over a century.
Painless blood tests, is this the right time?
The device from Becton, Dickinson & Co, called BD MiniDraw Collection System, allows blood to be drawn through a variable number of six to 18 drops of blood from the capillary vascular system by transcutaneous puncture, practically painless.
The sample is usually taken from the lateral edges of the fingers. The FDA, the US drug agency, has given the green light and, in theory, it will not be necessary to go to a laboratory, because a pharmacist could take care of it.
The blood test could be used to measure cholesterol levels or high blood pressure, for example.
The technology is therefore promising, especially since it is a market estimated at five billion dollars by the Allied Market Research company, and this is important because 70% of clinical decisions are based on the results of blood tests, according to Becton, Dickinson and Co.
It is not excluded that one day the technology, apparently very simple to use, will allow patients to collect this type of sample themselves.
Meanwhile, the device is mainly used to measure blood fats and red blood cell percentage, two very common blood tests. However, it is not excluded that the technology could soon be used for more complex analyses, including the early diagnosis of tumors.
