WSJ: Pills of the future to replace injection as specialty drug delivery mechanism

NEW YORK — The Food and Drug Administration recently approved two "robotic pills," or pills that place an image camera or ingestible sensors into the gastrointestinal tract, according to a report published earlier this week by the Wall Street Journal. 

Other robotic pills still in development include one backed by Google — a pill that would replace injectable drugs, the report noted. 

Blake Byers, the Google Ventures general partner who spearheaded the investment, told WSJ that inventor Mir Imran may be achieving one of the "holy grails" for biotechnology by figuring out how to deliver such protein-based drugs as basal insulin to the body without the use of a syringe.