Dive Brief:
- Novartis is seeking to develop remote-monitoring technology to accompany its therapies. The goal is to track patient health while providing hard-data results for post-marketing purposes.
- In July, Novartis signed a deal with Google in which the tech giant will develop contact lenses to help diabetics track blood glucose levels or restore the eyes' ability to focus.
- Novartis has also signed an agreement with Proteus Digital Health to develop tablets that contain embedded microchips to track patient compliance.
Dive Insight:
There are two sides to this story. On the one hand, biotech is become more "techy," with companies such as Novartis leading the way. On the other side, tech companies, such as Apple and Samsung, are moving toward healthcare and trying to find health-related applications for their wearable products.
A major driver for pharma companies is finding a way to track the effects of their drugs to justify pricing, while on a larger level, healthcare systems are looking for ways to determine when more intervention, such as sending a patient to the hospital, or when a "wait and see" approach makes more sense, is necessary.