The claim: Bill Gates invented a wireless birth control microchip
A Sept. 18 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) includes a picture of a gold microchip resting on a person’s fingertip.
“Bill Gates has invented a birth control microchip that can be switched on and off wirelessly,” reads on-screen text in the post. “The 20 x 20 x 7 millimeter chip can be implanted in the buttocks, upper arm, or abdomen, which then releases 30 micrograms of levonorgestrel a day – the hormone used in most contraceptives. The chip has (sic) said to last roughly 16 years.”
The post was shared more than 600 times in a week.
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Our rating: False
The device described in the post was invented by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1990s. Gates’s charitable foundation has helped fund the development of the device, but he did not invent it, and he is not credited on any of the patents associated with the device.
Device uses technology developed in 1990s at MIT
While Gates has helped fund the development of the device described in the social media posts, it’s incorrect to say he invented it, according to Robert Langer, an MIT professor who oversees research into material science and biotechnology. Langer and his team developed an implantable microchip that could provide the controlled release of medications several years before Gates became involved with the effort.
Gates had inquired about the feasibility of developing an implanted, user-controlled device for administering birth control during an early 2010s visit to MIT. Langer said his team had developed its chip in the 1990s, and Gates had not made the suggestion with Langer’s chip in mind.
“It was our idea to use it … for birth control,” Langer told USA TODAY in an email.
At the time of Gates’ visit, the technology had already been licensed to Microchips Biotech, a startup co-founded by Langer that was looking into the technology’s potential application for a number of conditions, including osteoporosis and diabetes.
As the post states, one version of the microchip being developed by Langer’s team is intended to be used as a birth control device. The device measures 20 x 20 x 7 millimeters and is designed to be implanted in the buttocks, upper arm or abdomen, according to the MIT Technology Review. It dispenses the contraceptive levonorgestrel and is designed to last up to 16 years.
Microchips Biotech was acquired in2019 by Dare Bioscience, which is developing the technology as an implantable birth control device called DARE-LARC1. At the time of the acquisition, Dare said the device was protected by more than 100 issued or pending patents, and Langer said Gates is not listed on any of them.
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That’s not to say Gates has had no involvement with the device’s advancement to market. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has provided financial support for its development over more than a decade. The foundations’ database shows about $70 million in grant commitments to the project in 2012, 2014 and 2021. The foundation has identified it as a technology that could allow women to have more control over their own fertility.
USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the claim for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Lead Stories also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
- Robert Langer, Sept. 25, Email exchange with USA TODAY
- MIT Technology Review, July 4, 2014, A Contraceptive Implant with Remote Control
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, accessed Sept. 25, Dare Bioscience, Inc., June 2021
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, accessed Sept. 25, Microchips Biotech, Inc January 2014
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, accessed Sept. 25, Microchips Biotech, Inc. December 2012
- Dare Bioscience, accessed Sept. 25, DARE-LARC1
- Dare Bioscience, Nov. 11, 2019, Dare Bioscience Enters into Agreement to Acquire Microchips Biotech Including Its First-in-Class Wireless, User-Controlled Drug Delivery Platform
- Microchips Biotech (archive), Dec. 15, 2014, Microchips Biotech, Inc. Completes Development and Clinical Demonstration of Proprietary Drug Delivery Platform and Advances Commercialization Efforts
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