LONDON--Will pharmaceutical companies lose control of the delivery of health care to upstart telecoms or even computer game manufacturers? Patrick Flochel, a Life Sciences Leader at Ernst & Young, thinks the signs may already be pointing in that direction.
Tech firms, though, have different cultures from drug makers. They're used to much more rapid change, and drug makers will have to get used to that, Flochel told The Economist Conferences' Pharma Summit 2010 meeting, held on Feb. 11 in London. These radical changes could even lead to drug makers losing any sort of middleman or coordinating role with the patient - so-called "disintermediation," he called it.
Ernst & Young launched a report, on the same day, describing what it calls "the shift from Pharma 2.0 to Pharma 3.0." The report outlines the growing need for expanded access and for drug makers to keep track of patients via measuring outcomes and promoting "wellness" and compliance ('The Pink Sheet' DAILY, Feb. 11, 2010).
Tech companies have been involved in health care for some time, of course, most prominently via large-scale IT projects involving medical records and databases. IBM and Oracle already have health care divisions, mainly involved in analyzing research data. But the key change is that such companies are now interacting more closely with patients.
Michael Reilly, director of the France Telecom company, Orange Healthcare UK, described how his company is looking closely at improving access to health care services for patients. In particular, the company is looking at the role of text (SMS) messaging in compliance schemes - innovation doesn't have to be complex, he noted.
In the device arena, Orange signed an agreement a year ago to collaborate with the device company, Sorin, to help physicians - on a remote basis - track patients who have an implanted cardiac rhythm monitoring device, Reilly added.
Computer Games To Help Blood Glucose Monitoring?
Computer games and entertainment companies may also be unexpected participants in the healthcare space in the future. Jon Achenbaum from Bayer HealthCare Diabetes Care explained how a new blood glucose meter, Didget, which links directly to a Nintendo DS handheld game console, was introduced for children last year in the UK and Ireland.
Didget rewards children for testing their glucose by allowing access to higher levels in games. Bayer also has introduced glucose meters that are "plug and play," meaning patients are able to access disease-management software via a USB port on the meter.
The diverse nature of companies that pharmaceutical execs will have to interact with in the future was underlined by UCB CEO Roch Doliveux. He reported how his firm had worked with the U.S. consumer design company, OXO, to develop a new type of self-injection needle device for use with the company's rheumatoid arthritis drug certolizumab ( Cimzia ). Companies like OXO may, in the future, play a more pivotal role in helping pharmaceutical firms differentiate their drugs through increased convenience or easier administration, thus leading to better compliance.
UCB also is working with PatientsLikeMe.com, a Web site that allows patients with severe disease to benchmark their health with other patients at a similar stage.
Target Patient Groups For IT-Pharma Deals Limited
Still, only a handful of initiatives between IT firms and drug makers have produced tangible products so far, and it is still uncertain whether issues like maintaining patient privacy will stymie their expansion.
Meanwhile, Janice Haigh from Astellas Pharma Europe sounded another note of caution. Patients "empowered" by information from the Internet may be on the increase, she said, but they are still in the minority.
Helping children take their medicine is all well and good, but a high proportion of pharmaceuticals are taken by patients aged over 75, many of whom probably rarely, if ever, use the Internet or even mobile phones. It is these people that drug makers must strive to understand, Haigh pointed out. That understanding is unlikely to come via computer games or telecom firms.
-John Davis (j.davis@elsevier.com
This article is reprinted from "The Pink Sheet" DAILY –Feb 12, 2010
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