FDA approves swallowable ‘PillCam’ after almost a decade (video)

It’s been about nine years since we last heard from from Given Imaging, but the FDA has finally granted a version of the firm’s minuscule snapshooter its blessing. Not everyone has an easy time undergoing traditional colonoscopy procedures (due to drug allergies, for example), which is where the outfit’s PillCam Colon comes in. The camera takes a series of high-speed photos along its eight-hour tour through your digestive system, and transmits the snapshots to a device you mount on your belt. There is a caveat though, as the images aren’t up to par with those taken withstandard techniques. The PillCam has been available in 80 other countries for some time, but its US-approval could give the some 750,000 people who can’t undergo normal cancer-and-polyp-scanning procedures a chance at early detection.