The Beyond the Pill movement took an interesting turn this week when Qualcomm announced plans to open an investment business with Novartis, according to a company statement. Qualcomm will launch the investment company through its Qualcomm Ventures business. The news splash at the start of the JP Morgan Healthcare conference came about a week after the two companies said at the International CES in Las Vegas that they would collaborate on digital health as part of Novartis’ Trials of the Future program.
The new company will invest up to $100 million in digital health businesses. Nagraj Kashyap, senior vice president of Qualcomm Ventures, said Qualcomm Ventures has invested in 18 healthcare startups since 2011.
“This joint investment company with Novartis will allow us to combine their expertise in healthcare solutions with our knowledge of mobile technologies to accelerate innovation in the field of digital medicine.”
Pharmaceutical companies have been increasingly interested in the potential digital health holds to reduce reduce research and development costs. It makes a lot of sense for a pharmaceutical company to partner with a technology company in this way. I wouldn’t be surprised if other pharmaceutical companies later join this investment business. After all, it would be a good way to diversify investments depending on clinical trial needs and it could reduce risk. Qualcomm Life confirmed that other pharmaceutical companies would be encouraged to join as well, although initially it will just be Novartis.
Update “dRx Capital was created as an agnostic entity with a global mission of accelerating the use of digital technologies in medicine. We look forward to partnering with other pharmaceutical companies or technology companies to co-invest in these emerging companies as well.”
At CES, Qualcomm Life said it would work with Novartis on its Trials of The Future program — an initiative to use health technology to improve the experience of clinical trial participants and patients using Novartis products, and provide connectivity with future products marketed by Novartis. Novartis will combine Qualcomm Life’s 2net Platform, 2net Hub and 2net Mobile technologies with designated medical devices to automate patient data at patient’s homes during clinical trials.
In the first test of this collaboration, Novartis is using the 2net Platform in a recently-launched clinical study, evaluating the use of mobile devices with chronic lung disease patients. The observational study doesn’t include Novartis pharmaceuticals. It uses 2net smartphones and 2net Hubs to collect and aggregate biometric data from medical devices and transmits the data to the cloud-based 2net Platform, which sends the data to the study coordinator.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Novartis’ Trials of the Future program has experimented with remote monitoring and telemedicine, among other areas. It also involved a collaboration with Walgreens to get health volunteers in store to take their own blood pressure readings using smartphones.
One of the consequences of the rise in the cost of drug development is that it has made pharmaceutical companies more risk averse and more interested in developing drugs they are more confident will succeed. Reducing the cost of drug development, particularly for elements like the time consuming clinical trial recruitment process, could make it easier for drug development companies to fail early and often.
Update: This story has been updated to reflect additional information provided by Qualcomm Life in an emailed statement.
