Digital Health Interests Of Pharma Giants Boehringer Ingelheim, Takeda, Astrazeneca, Amgen And Roche

With their extending reaches, resources and influence, pharmaceutical heavyweights have the potential to shape the digital health landscape to line up with their interests. And to have a better picture of where those interests lie, it is worth taking a look at what moves pharma giants are making in this sphere. With this in mind, we started a series of articles focusing on the digital health efforts of 14 global pharma companies.?

The first article explored developments coming from Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Bayer and Novartis, while the second article investigated those coming from Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, AbbVie, Sanofi and Bristol Myers Squibb. This third article, which will conclude the series, will peek into the digital health trends that pharma giants Boehringer Ingelheim, Takeda, AstraZeneca, Amgen and Roche have taken an interest in.

Boehringer Ingelheim: leaning on the patient side of the equation

To boost opportunities for innovators and digital health tech uptake in the UK, pharma giant Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) launched a new guide in December 2020. It provides entrepreneurs with insights into the NHS, as well as potential pathways to sustainably improve the health system’s services with emerging technologies.

BI has also made moves to improve the patient side of the digital health equation. Like its counterparts Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb, BI has developed a liking for digital therapeutics (DTx). In September 2020, the pharma company signed a $500 million deal with Click Therapeutics for the development of a DTx solution for patients with schizophrenia. The software will help patients in adjusting their behaviour by leveraging cognitive and neurobehavioral mechanisms.?

The following month, it partnered with Yale University on a new trial involving a digital health technology. The latter, a smart bathroom scale, integrates cardiac monitoring and a companion app to help cardiac patients better manage their condition and improve their prospects.?

And this September, it sponsored a new coalition, the Patient Coalition for AI, Data and Digital Tech in Health. It aims to ensure that patients can access digital health services equitably.

Takeda: pushing for digital health innovation

Considering Japanese multinational pharmaceutical company Takeda’s recent moves, the big fish seems to incentivise innovative projects that can improve the healthcare ecosystem.?

This March, it launched TakedaSpark, an incubation platform, in Shanghai. Through TakedaSpark, Takeda aims to boost digital health innovation through new projects and partnerships. "We hope to use flexible, innovative and high-quality products to provide better treatments for patients," said Sean Shan, president of Takeda China. "Digitalisation will be an empowering tool to expedite our overall efficiency, and it's also crucial for how we connect with various stakeholders and collaborators."

In line with such efforts, Takeda also held its Digital Health Innovation Challenge earlier this year. Winners of the challenge are able to partner with the pharma company, and also benefit from funding to help commercialise their projects. One of this year’s winners, IDUN Technologies, focuses on sleep disorders. It develops headphones to monitor and promote sleep onset through neuromodulation.

AstraZeneca: big pharma and big collabs

Like Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca is now closely associated with a COVID-19 vaccine. But like the former companies, AstraZeneca is also eyeing digital health opportunities closely.?

To that end, the pharma company has collaborated with several players in the industry lately. Last December, it partnered with Quire.ai, an A.I. solution provider. Through this collaboration, AstraZeneca will focus on applying A.I. solutions in developing markets to detect lung cancer at an early stage, and hence reduce associated mortality rates.?

This April, AstraZeneca announced a collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital. The latter will employ the drugmaker’s digital health platform for heart failure and asthma management in a real-world setting. In the same month, AstraZeneca partnered with NVIDIA and the University of Florida for a new drug-discovery project. The latter will use the new MegaMoIBART model that leverages NVIDIA’s A.I. drug discovery platform and a new kind of technology called transformer neural networks. According to Kimberly Powell, VP of healthcare at NVIDIA, transformer neural networks could help accelerate research and speed up drug discovery.

AstraZeneca also announced another partnership in August with Renalytix AI, an A.I.-enabled in vitro diagnostics company. With the latter’s KidneyIntelX platform, the team’s researchers will assign a risk score to chronic kidney disease patients based on their medical records. Physicians can subsequently use this score to determine the progression of the disease and prevent complications.?

The pharma giant is also showing some interest in point-of-care devices. In August 2020, it teamed up with Eko to use the latter’s digital health tools in clinical trials. Eko is itself known for developing smart digital stethoscopes. AstraZeneca announced another similar partnership with AliveCor this February. With the latter’s A.I.-enabled personal ECG devices and algorithms, the team will study new methods, non-invasive methods to manage cardiac and renal issues.

Amgen: small steps

For American multinational biopharmaceutical company Amgen, collaborations are also key to its digital health ventures. While it has not been as aggressive in this regard as its competitors, in April, Amgen announced two new digital health collaborations.

It partnered with Liva Healthcare, a digital health coaching company, to develop a tele-rehabilitation solution for cardiac patients. More specifically, it is targeted to help patients gauge and adjust their lifestyle following a heart attack.

Amgen also launched a new digital health study with Datos Health in April. From patient data collected remotely through digital technologies, they will study the feasibility of improving heart failure treatment with better and personalised guidelines.?

Roche: leveraging its digital health acquisition

Swiss heavyweight Roche was explicit about its interest in digital health solutions relatively early on. In 2017, it acquired diabetes management start-up mySugr, and integrated the app to Roche’s own devices. It maintained its interest in investigating digital health tools in diabetes management in subsequent years and leveraged this key acquisition.?

In April 2021, Roche integrated mySugr's Logbook with Nordisk's connected insulin pens, providing patients with more insights into managing their condition. In May, it added the new Pump Control module to the mySugr app. It allows users to deliver a standard bolus remotely with their Accu-Chek Insight insulin pump. The latter device was also able to integrate with the Diabeloop monitoring system following a new partnership by Roche in March. The system’s algorithm continuously monitors and can adjust insulin delivery.

Source: www.bloomberg.com

Roche’s recent moves seem invested in healthcare A.I. In September, it inked a deal with?Israeli startup Medial EarlySign to bring an A.I.-powered early-stage gastric cancer detection tool. Roche also paired with PatchAi to develop a cancer patient support software that uses A.I. to engage users in empathic conversations.

Regarding empathy, Roche Diagnostics India launched a dedicated app in June to assist in the wellness of healthcare workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides users with self-help and self-assessment tools, as well as counselling sessions.

Staying relevant in the digital health era

As we come to a close to our series of articles contemplating the digital health endeavours of pharmaceutical giants, we hope the insights collected will prove to be valuable. A common theme among those big pharma companies seems to be the forging of numerous partnerships with industry players. This could indicate a bid to stay relevant in the ever-evolving digital health field. Some companies have also shown promising steps to consider the patient side of things through new studies, patient-centric tools or even advocacy groups.

We will further analyse those general trends in a roundup article. But we hope that this series has given you some insights into where the digital health field might be heading and what aspects of this field that some influential companies are eyeing.