{"id":17133,"date":"2016-11-18T08:36:26","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T13:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/the-digitization-of-a-pill\/"},"modified":"2016-11-18T08:36:26","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T13:36:26","slug":"the-digitization-of-a-pill","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/the-digitization-of-a-pill\/","title":{"rendered":"The digitization of a pill"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is patient medication adherence?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am on a daily medicine which has to be taken once a day, first thing in the morning before I eat anything. It doesn\u2019t sound too complicated! And yet, I know for a fact that I am able to comply to the simple instructions less than 70% of the time. Do I have a problem following simple instructions? Maybe. But I am not alone. Medication non adherence is common and it describes the degree to which a patient correctly follows medical advice. Extensive studies have shown that the medication adherence level in developed countries averages around 50% with half of this being unintentional. [1]<\/p>\n

Is patient medication adherence a big problem?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In many cases yes.<\/p>\n

Adherence rates in patients with HIV\/AIDS was between 37% and 83% depending on the treatment regimen. Anti-retroviral therapies require very high levels of adherence (\u2265 95%). Lower adherence rates may lead to resistance to the line of therapy and further transmission to other people. [2]<\/p>\n

Study on patients taking anti-depressants reveal that only 40% and 70% adhere to their treatment therapies. [3]<\/p>\n

In United States, only 51% of the patients undergoing treatment for hypertension adhere to their prescribed treatment. Patients who did not adhere to the therapy were 4.5 times more likely to have complications of heart disease. Low adherence is one of the primary causes of unsatisfactory control of high blood pressure. [4]<\/p>\n

When physicians erroneously assume that the patients have adhered to the medication, they make inappropriate medication changes, which can further result in complications. [5]<\/p>\n

The consequences of poor adherence to long-term therapies are poor health outcomes and increased health care costs. The development of resistance to therapies is another serious health issue. Resistance to old molecules stimulates the need for additional investment in R&D to fight new variants of the causative organisms. [6]<\/p>\n

What can a pharmaceutical company do about patient medication adherence?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Apart from promoting patient health, pharmaceutical companies also have a financial incentive for increasing medicine adherence. It is estimated that pharma companies lose an estimated $600 Bn every year due to non-adherence!<\/p>\n

Most pharmaceutical companies have been working on incremental solutions for improving adherence including-simplified drug regimens, improved packaging, better tolerance profiles of drugs, generic medicines for reduced cost and, Web-based reminders. [7]<\/p>\n

There is a new company, Proteus Digital Health, which has been working on a \u201csmart pill\u201d. At the core of the smart pill is an ingestible sensor coated in two digestible metals- copper and magnesium. The pill is the result of innovation which combines semiconductor technology with pharmaceutical technology. The pill is not dangerous. It is made up of elements which are a part of a typical diet. When the pill reaches the stomach, the sensors on the pill are activated by electrolytes in the body. The sensors then transmit a signal received by a sensor patch and transmitted onto the mobile devices of the patients or their caregivers. \u00a0[8]<\/p>\n

\"marsblog-proteus-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

While this may seem like a complicated solution to a problem which can hypothetically be solved by a simple SMS reminder, it goes deeper than that. While about 50% of the non-adherence is due to unintentional missing of the drug, there is 50% which is intentional. This may be due to various factors like side effects of treatment, cost of treatment, no visible benefits of taking treatment or just plain refusal to treatment. Having the information on the drug taking pattern of the patient could be a very powerful diagnosis tool for the health care provider.<\/p>\n

What is the future of \u201cSmart Pills\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the ingestible pill is approved for independent usage, the first drug to be launched using this technology is yet to receive approval from USFDA.<\/p>\n

If the technology receives approval from USFDA, it has the potential to significantly impact the entire pharmaceutical industry.<\/p>\n

Drug manufacturers wanting to get onto this technology may have to upgrade their manufacturing processes and capabilities. New regulatory approvals may be required for their existing drugs.<\/p>\n

Drug companies may see this as a way to increase the patent life of their molecules.<\/p>\n

Japanese giant Otsuka Pharmaceutical is already working in a collaboration with Proteus Digital Health to get the USFDA approval and extend the patent for the \u201csmartified\u201d version of their existing antipsychotic drug, Abilify. [9]<\/p>\n

Big Pharma is ready to push patients to take their medicines.<\/p>\n

The question to be answered \u2013 Are the patients ready to swallow a data-tracking “Smart” Pill?<\/p>\n

[Word Count: 731]<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/p>\n

[1] WHO | Adherence to Long-Term Therapies: Evidence for Action. 2016. WHO | Adherence to Long-Term Therapies: Evidence for Action. [ONLINE] Available at: http:\/\/www.who.int\/hiv\/pub\/prev_care\/lttherapies\/en\/. [Accessed 18 November 2016]<\/p>\n

[2] World Health Organization. 2003. Adherence to long term therapies. [ONLINE] Available at: http:\/\/apps.who.int\/iris\/bitstream\/10665\/42682\/1\/9241545992.pdf. [Accessed 17 November 2016].<\/p>\n

[3] Ibid.<\/p>\n

[4] Ibid.<\/p>\n

[5] Ther Clin Risk Manag. 2005. The challenge of patient adherence. [ONLINE] Available at: https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC1661624\/. [Accessed 17 November 2016].<\/p>\n

[6] World Health Organization. 2003. Adherence to long term therapies. [ONLINE] Available at: http:\/\/apps.who.int\/iris\/bitstream\/10665\/42682\/1\/9241545992.pdf. [Accessed 17 November 2016].<\/p>\n

[7] Pharma Needs a Medication Adherence Game Plan. 2016. Pharma Needs a Medication Adherence Game Plan. [ONLINE] Available at: http:\/\/www.pharmaceuticalonline.com\/doc\/pharma-needs-a-medication-adherence-game-plan-0001. [Accessed 18 November 2016].<\/p>\n

[8] Discover – Proteus Digital Health. 2016. Discover – Proteus Digital Health. [ONLINE] Available at: http:\/\/www.proteus.com\/discover\/. [Accessed 18 November 2016].<\/p>\n

[9] STAT. 2016. Big Pharma spending big to push patients to take their meds. [ONLINE] Available at: https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2016\/02\/04\/big-pharma-medication-adherence\/. [Accessed 18 November 2016].<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Image Sources<\/p>\n

[1] MaRS. 2016. How ingestible sensors and smart pills will revolutionize healthcare – MaRS. [ONLINE] Available at: https:\/\/www.marsdd.com\/news-and-insights\/ingestibles-smart-pills-revolutionize-healthcare\/. [Accessed 18 November 2016].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smart pills to help patients to adhere to their treatment regimens<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1799,"featured_media":17134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[2434,2029,2435,2433,1686,2351,2432,2436],"class_list":["post-17133","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-compliance","category-digitization","category-drug","category-medicine-adherence","category-pharmaceutical","category-proteus-digital-health","category-smart-pill","category-usfda"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/digitization-challenge-2016\/","yoast_head":"\nThe digitization of a pill - Technology and Operations Management<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/the-digitization-of-a-pill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The digitization of a pill - 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