Holmusk and Merck Partner to Enhance Diabetes and Prediabetes Care in Asia-Pacific with Digital Therapeutic Platform GlycoLeap

SINGAPORE, Nov. 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Singapore-based Holmusk announced a partnership with the healthcare business of Merck KGaA, a leading technology company, to provide holistic treatment approaches for prediabetes and diabetes to patients and physicians in the Asia-Pacific region. The collaboration involves Holmusk’s advanced mobile digital therapeutic platform, GlycoLeap, which leverages a highly data-driven approach to deliver personalized dietary feedback, interactive educational modules, and one-on-one coaching from senior health coaches, helping patients lose weight and improve glycemic control.

Lifestyle and behavioral modifications are the foundation for effective management of prediabetes and diabetes; however, healthcare providers often struggle to implement such changes due to limited resources and time. Digital health solutions like GlycoLeap may offer an effective, engaging, and scalable approach to tracking, personalizing, and influencing patient behavior.

By matching patients with personal health coaches, GlycoLeap serves as an adjunct to pharmacological therapy for diabetes and prediabetes, helping to prevent diabetes and improve chronic disease outcomes. Randomized clinical trials of the Diabetes Prevention Program have demonstrated that lifestyle interventions and metformin therapy reduced the progression to type 2 diabetes by 58% and 31%, respectively, among individuals at risk.¹。

Dr. Ulrike Hostalek, Executive Director of Medical Affairs for Merck Group’s Healthcare Business Sector and Head of General Practice and Endocrinology at GMA, stated:

“Expanding therapeutic offerings beyond pharmacotherapy is a key pillar of our vision for supporting patients and driving improved treatment outcomes. Lifestyle interventions play a critical role in managing impaired fasting glucose. We are pleased to partner with Holmusk, which can deliver scalable, evidence-based programs to relevant patients in Southeast Asia, a region heavily burdened by prediabetes. In 2018, Holmusk successfully participated‘Merck350Anniversary CelebrationResearch Challenges——Transforming the World of Prediabetes’...we are also very pleased to continue advancing our partnership with Holmusk.”

Dr. Yau Teng Yan, Chief Medical Officer of Holmusk Digital Therapeutics, stated:

“Providing culturally attuned, holistic digital care tools for patients in the Asia-Pacific region is a significant step in the right direction. Merck’s vision aligns closely with ours—to improve patient outcomes and pioneer solutions beyond medication for patients—and we look forward to collaborating with Merck.”

Starting in China, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, patients with diabetes and/or prediabetes (depending on each country’s marketing authorization) will be able to use GlycoLeap under physician supervision later this year.

References

1. Vanita R. Aroda, Robert E. Ratner, Metformin and the Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes, Diabetes Spectrum, November 2018; 31(4): 336-342