You’ve probably read about the cupping and doping, but here’s how Olympians are using performance-enhancing digital health technology in their quest for gold and glory.
- FDA finalized guidance drawing the line on regulation of digital health devices and apps. The agency will not regulate “general wellness” devices and apps deemed “low risk” – that is, those that are non-invasive, not implanted, and do not involve approaches or technologies that could pose a risk to user safety (think lasers or radiation). Here’s the guidance in full (PDF). Question for marketers: should most anything that qualifies as “low risk” and “general wellness” and is not clinically-validated be considered “digital snake oil,” per AMA CEO Madara’s recent comments?
- Philips launched its HealthSuite line of connected health monitoring devices. What differentiates the Philips digital health platform and products, which include a scale, a watch, an ear thermometer and a blood pressure monitor, is that they have been cleared for medical use by FDA.
- More rumors that Apple is working on a health and medical sensor product – this time from the Taiwanese press – with a reported 2017 launch target. Word is that Apple is working on blood glucose and heart sensors, which may or may not incorporate the Apple Watch.
- The AMA is partnering with Omada Health on the latter’s clinically-validated app that helps pre-diabetic patients ward off onset of the disease.
- Propeller Health’s COO says: “In the next few years we will begin to see new, differentiated products approved with the combination of medicines and digital experiences. These will be marketed as line extensions for existing branded drugs or as repurposed generic medications. In some cases the digital component will be integrated directly into the medication or medication dispenser (i.e.: Propeller or Proteus Digital Health), or in some cases as a “digital wrapper” around a medicine (i.e.: Pear Therapeutics or Glooko).”
- Audi is working on “automotive health” technology integrating wearables into the car to monitor vitals and enabling the car to respond with seat massages, air conditioning, and eventually piloted emergency stops.
- The marriage of tech and pharma continues: Fitbit has hired a Walgreens exec as president of digital health – a new post – tasked with forging partnerships with drug and device companies, payers and providers. Meanwhile, J&J hired a Dropbox exec to forge partnerships with tech companies.
- Nestle and Samsung are making some kind of Internet of Things play that will combine Samsung’s Artik platform with Nestle nutritional offerings.
- GSK is partnering with Alphabet/Google spinoff Verily on a $700 million “electroceuticals” venture that seeks to use electric stimulation of nerves to harness the immune system to treat, well, any number of things. The UK-based joint venture will be called Galvani Bioelectronics and will focus, initially, on “establishing clinical proofs of principle in inflammatory, metabolic and endocrine disorders” including type 2 diabetes. GSK has been a leading investor in the emerging field.
- GSK has also developed a gene therapy for the rare childhood immune deficiency depicted in “The Boy in the Bubble.” They plan to charge $665,000 for it, but it will come with a money-back guarantee.
- That’s in keeping with a global trend towards outcomes- or performance-based reimbursementschemes, driven in the U.S. by healthcare reform and more assertive PBMs, and in Europe, China and other more centralized markets by economic pressure. Getting the models right, though, will be a process, PBMs say.
- On Tuesday, Facebook blocked ad blockers from its desktop version but added preferences allowing users broad control over what ads they see, including the ability to block ads from specific brands.
- Meanwhile, advertisers are hoping Verizon’s acquisition of Yahoo gives near online advertising co-monopolists Google and Facebook some competition.
- The FTC says it will force social influencers to disclose paid promotions.
- Disappointing trial results for Bristol-Myers Squibb’s immunotherapy drug Opdivo took a bite out of company share prices and buoyed Merck’s rival drug Keytruda. With the trial, for non-small cell lung cancer, BMS took a gamble by testing a much broader spectrum of patients than did Merck, which tested only patients with very high levels of the chemical signal the drugs target. Score one for personalized medicine.
- Bristol-Myers Squibb’s ad campaign for Opdivo has won its share of both arrows and laurels. The New York Times adds to the arrows, a writer blasting the campaign for “preying upon the fears and waning hopes of terminal cancer patients” and overhyping the promise of immunotherapy to today’s patients.
- Incidentally, check out this great Times series on immunotherapy.
- Some physicians worry about what info their patients are getting through social and other online channels, and a pediatrician counsels fellow doctors to ask patients what they’ve read online about a condition or treatment.
- Twitter’s Mary Ann Belliveau has some tips on how pharmas can improve their Twitter game. Content calendars, video and interactivity are among them.
- A study published in JAMA analyzed digital health use among seniors, and found that 16% obtained health info online, while 8% filled prescriptions and 7% contacted clinicians digitally.
- Unmet need: 54% of Americans misused prescription drugs last year, according to a Quest Diagnostics study that looked at everything from adherence to dangerous drug combinations.
- Even with insurance, the costs shouldered by hospitalized patients grew at twice the rate of overall healthcare spending between 2009 and 2013, a study found.
