Dive Brief:
- WellDoc has announced a commercial partnership with the Johnson & Johnson diabetes care company LifeScan to deliver a digital health solution to make disease management easier for people with type 2 diabetes.
- The solution will package WellDoc’s BlueStar diabetes management platform and mobile app with LifeScan’s Bluetooth-enabled blood glucose monitor.
- BlueStar was the first digital therapeutic to be approved by the FDA for adults with type 2 diabetes.
Dive Insight:
Encouraging people to manage their own type 2 diabetes is critical to improving the long term outcomes of the disease, because better outcomes mean a greater quality of life as well as lower healthcare costs. Managing a chronic disease is tough, though, from accepting the diagnosis to understanding and complying with diet, lifestyle and drug regimens. As payment-by-results and value-based pricing becomes a bigger issue, especially with the higher cost and innovative drugs, this kind of patient support is going to become more important to payers, providers and pharma.
WellDoc and LifeScan are connecting the digital lives of people with their type 2 diabetes by creating an integrated health solution. The program will connect WellDoc’s BlueStar diabetes management platform and mobile application with LifeScan’s Bluetooth-enabled OneTouch Verio Flex blood glucose monitoring system.
The two companies are hoping the ability to put in real-time data will improve patient compliance, pleasing both doctors and payers.
"We’ve made considerable progress in our important relationship with LifeScan, Inc., which began earlier this year via a development agreement and a Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc. investment in WellDoc," said Kevin McRaith, CEO of WellDoc. “
Other pharma companies are also looking to increase the continuum of care for diabetes patients. Sanofi inked an agreement earlier this month with Verily Life Sciences, the life sciences unit of Google's parent company Alphabet, to provide disease solutions.