Steady Yet Cautious Growth: Q3 2018 Digital Health Initiatives by Leading Pharma Companies

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Overall, based on the disclosed moves of major pharmaceutical companies, the development of pharmaceutical businesses in the digital health sector during Q3 2018 was characterized by slow but steady progress. During this quarter, companies such as Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Novartis, and Sanofi successively articulated their perspectives on digital therapeutics. While these top-tier pharmaceutical firms demonstrated strong enthusiasm for the field, they also maintained a degree of skepticism.

The well-known U.S. website MobiHealthNews tracked and summarized the activities of major top pharmaceutical companies this quarter, including investments, pilots, partnerships, and app launches. VCBeat promptly compiled and translated these summaries. Below is the content compiled and organized by VCBeat from the website.

Jorvis van Dam, Executive Director of Digital Health at Novartis, stated at the Boston Digital Health Conference this September: “While these technologies appear to offer great hope to patients, very few actually deliver tangible benefits. It is our shared responsibility to turn patient hope into reality… Therefore, our discussion is not about determining who is the smartest person in the room, but rather about how we can collaborate to outperform our past efforts and bring concrete, meaningful benefits to patients.”

In the coming months, we may see more concrete actions taken by pharmaceutical companies in the field of digital therapeutics. For now, however, we can begin by reviewing the trends and characteristics exhibited by leading pharmaceutical companies this quarter in terms of significant investments, latest research, and partnership building.

British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline made a significant investment in the digital health sector this quarter. Specifically, GlaxoSmithKline announced the acquisition of 23andMe, a startup in the genetic testing field, for $300 million, thereby securing exclusive access to 23andMe’s DNA database. According to reports at the time, this deal is expected to accelerate GlaxoSmithKline’s drug development efforts, as the company plans to leverage these data to develop an experimental Parkinson’s disease medication.

This August, an email from 23andMe further enhanced the perceived value of its database. The message announced that the company would shut down the API that allowed third-party application development using anonymized customer datasets. This means that only GlaxoSmithKline, which holds exclusive usage rights, will remain unaffected in its access to these data.

Furthermore, the collaboration agreement signed between GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and NeuroMetrix in January of this year has already begun to yield returns. Under the agreement, GSK became the exclusive non-U.S. distributor for NeuroMetrix’s wearable pain-relief brand, Quell. According to NeuroMetrix’s quarterly report, GSK paid NeuroMetrix $3.8 million during the current quarter.

Another piece of good news for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in the third quarter was that several new versions of the Hailie sensor, launched by its partner Adherium—a company headquartered in New Zealand—received FDA over-the-counter (OTC) clearance. Among these new versions, two were specifically designed for GSK’s products.

Meanwhile, Adherium also announced the launch of an online portal that will allow providers to access patient data collected by the Hailie sensor via Bluetooth and uploaded wirelessly.

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In Q3 2018, another pharmaceutical company that was somewhat busy was Novartis, headquartered in Switzerland. In July of this year, the company launched an application called Galaxies of Hope. Galaxies of Hope enables patients, healthcare providers, and caregivers to address neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) through a multimodal, comprehensive approach. By sharing real-life stories of patients and healthcare providers managing NETs, it helps guide the user experience for patients dealing with several different types of cancer. Developed with the assistance of Numinous Games, the app aims to help patients and caregivers better cope with the disease.

Novartis has also developed a new life sciences intelligence platform by leveraging Shyft Analytics, a subsidiary of Medidata Solutions. Specifically, Novartis plans to adopt Shyft Analytics’ Strata data and Lumen Insights technology platforms. This deal is expected to help Novartis commercialize certain therapies in Europe.

In August, a joint report presented by Healint, a digital health company specializing in headache treatment, and Novartis at the Fourth Congress of the European Academy of Neurology indicated that chronic migraine may lead to anxiety and depression. This finding stands in stark contrast to the previously prevailing view that anxiety and depression cause chronic migraine. The results of this report were derived from researchers’ observations of over one million users of the migraine tracking app Migraine Buddy, as well as an analysis of responses from 43,189 users.

Finally, Novartis and Japan’s Otsuka Pharmaceutical contributed $31 million to StartUp Health this quarter.

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Although not on the same scale as GlaxoSmithKline’s $300 million investment, Sanofi also participated in digital health investments this quarter. In July, Sanofi Ventures led a new round of financing for Click Therapeutics, totaling $17 million. The funds are expected to support the development of Click Therapeutics’ proprietary platform and expand the distribution channels for its digital therapeutics products. Currently, the New York-based company is researching digital prescription therapies for the treatment of depression, insomnia, acute coronary syndrome, and chronic pain.

This quarter, Sanofi also reached an agreement with Nutrino, a nutrition-focused digital health company. Under the agreement, Sanofi will provide Nutrino with FoodPrint technology support. This will help Nutrino demonstrate to users the connection between their diet and health. The technology is designed to help users manage chronic diseases, identify food trends, improve health, and control weight.

This August, Merck partnered with Healthy Interactions, a healthcare company offering diabetes and chronic disease management programs, to jointly launch the diabetes management platform map4health. The platform is designed to provide patients with face-to-face counseling services. map4health made its debut at the annual conference of the American Association of Diabetes Educators held in Baltimore and includes a patient-facing app. The app features text and video content, supports goal tracking, and enables forum-based communication. In addition to facilitating patient engagement, providers can monitor changes in patients’ relevant health data through a backend dashboard.

Healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (including its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals) made relatively few moves in this field during the quarter. In July, Janssen provided research funding to Haga Teaching Hospital in the Netherlands for its wearable biosensor and artificial intelligence research. Supported by technologies from startups VitalConnect and physIQ, the study aims to observe and understand how these technologies can detect adverse events in early-stage cancer treatment.

Another move Johnson & Johnson made this quarter was to further distance itself from the digital health sector. Specifically, Johnson & Johnson sold its digital health product, Calibra, to CeQur, a decade-old company primarily focused on wearable insulin devices. The specific terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but CeQur has obtained an exclusive global license for Calibra.

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In August, we learned that Abilify MyCite, a sensor-embedded medication jointly launched by Otsuka Pharmaceuticals (hereinafter referred to as “Otsuka”) and Proteus Digital Health (hereinafter referred to as “Proteus”), is poised to enter the U.S. market. This development is facilitated by a new collaborative agreement between Otsuka and Magellan Health (hereinafter referred to as “Magellan”). The initial launch of this medication aims solely to help Otsuka and Magellan better understand how to promote this technology on a large scale.

Otsuka is not the only pharmaceutical company focusing on this field. Among the series of important studies presented at the International AIDS Conference held in Amsterdam this July, one involved equipping Gilead Sciences’ anti-HIV drug Truvada with tracking technology. In this trial, researchers found that the sensor-equipped pills were well received by most participants and demonstrated pharmacokinetic equivalence to standard Truvada, paving the way for the clinical application of this technology.

Abbott’s FreeStyle continuous glucose monitoring system, capable of operating continuously for 14 days, received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this quarter. The single-use device consists of a tiny insertable sensor and an adhesive patch worn on the arm. The product was initially approved by the FDA in September 2017, at which time its maximum continuous wear duration was 10 days.

In addition to traditional pharmaceutical companies, Dthera Sciences, a San Diego-based enterprise developing clinical and consumer digital therapeutics for patients with neurodegenerative diseases, also achieved significant milestones in Q3 2018. This August, the company’s investigational intervention, dthra-alz, was granted Breakthrough Device designation by the U.S. FDA. dthra-alz is a digital therapeutic intervention designed to alleviate anxiety and depression symptoms caused by cognitive impairment in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.