Tom Homer, Telstra, looks at the maturing market of digital health and partnerships between life science and technology companies
Otsuka Pharmaceutical, a Japanese life sciences company, and its US-based partner Proteus Digital Health recently applied for regulatory approval of an anti-depressant drug incorporating an ingestible sensor. The sensor will measure how patients keep to their prescriptions, and the treatment’s effects, the data being transmitted to care providers. If approved, it will mark the first mass-market commercialisation of a ‘smart pill’, and will be an important manifestation of the promise of digital health.