TECH OUTLOOKNovember - 202019Asia Pharma Pursues Digital Health ShiftAs the pharma industry globally pursues technology and activities "beyond the pill" in its push towards digital health, some familiar but decidedly "un-pharma" names are cropping up in new collaborations.This includes in Japan, where gaming giant Bandai Namco is working with one major pharma group on new applications of its technology.Contrary to its high-tech image, the country has been relatively slow in its initial embrace of digital and online technologies. But given the burden that Japan's rapidly aging population is placing on government-funded healthcare costs, the research-based pharma industry has been calling for a more preventative approach to health, and in turn, is now looking to play a broader role in well-being.Major corporate initiatives over the past couple of years in the Japan digital health space are focusing on treatment adherence and the capture of patient data related to general health and side-effects, with other moves made more recently to improve patient-physician interactions and efficacy of treatment.Chugai Pharmaceutical, for instance, has started to provide treatment support for selected oncology products under a collaboration with Tokyo-based venture Embrace. A dedicated mobile device application is being used with Embrace's established private social network service MedicalCareStation, which allows patients to communicate to care providers, their condition, and any side-effects that arise during treatment with Chugai's non-small cell lung cancer drug Tecentriq (atezolizumab).Chugai has also set up with Tokyo-based Qlife (a Japanese healthcare advertising and marketing business) "Gan with." This is a dedicated information website on daily living issues facing cancer patients and their families and co-workers (Gan is the Japanese word for cancer), enabling them to share experiences.Otsuka Pharmaceutical has a global collaboration with the US venture Proteus Digital Health to develop "smart pills," including a MyCite formulation of Otsuka's blockbuster atypical antipsychotic Abilify (aripiprazole). The MyCite technology was approved in the US in November 2017, and the tablets are embedded during By Ian Haydock, Head of Content, Scrip/Pink Sheet, Pharma Intelligence, InformaCXO INSIGHTS
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