Health IT, Patient Engagement

Medisafe expands medication adherence research service for pharma and life science customers

The expanded service is designed to provide pharma companies with information that can help inform new strategies and tactics to improve patient engagement.

 

Medisafe, a digital health business that developed a wireless pill bottle and companion app to remind people to take their prescription meds and track adherence levels, has tweaked and expanded a market research service aimed at pharma companies. It builds on a medication adherence analysis product the company launched last year.

The business has taken de-identified data from its community of 4 million app users and made it the basis of Medisafe for Pharma. The Medisafe Insights service gives pharma companies a greater understanding of medication adherence for their drug brands in various markets and how that compares with rival medications, according to Medisafe cofounder and CEO Omri Shor. He shared the news in a phone interview. The difference is that this information is kept current as opposed to monthly, Shor noted in an email.

Pharma companies can identify challenges unique to patient cohorts over time. The information can help inform new strategies and tactics to improve patient engagement. The service is also intended to help pharma companies boost revenues and grab more marketshare for the longterm.

“Currently one major problem is that pharma manufacturers are missing valuable data,” Shor said. The Medisafe Insights service enables pharma companies not only to compare and contrast adherence rates for their brands in one or more markets. Medisafe will also function as an intermediary for pharma companies who have questions for people taking their drugs related to nonadherence and how to improve it and work with patients to transmit answers to those questions.

So far, Medisafe is working with six companies to use the service, which starts at $2,000, Shor said.

Since the business closed a $14.5 million Series B round in March, Medisafe has grown the staff across its business by 30 percent to 40 across its Boston headquarters and London offices, said Shor. The funding was intended, in part, to bolster its development, sales and marketing teams. The company is continuing to recruit employees.

Medisafe’s market research tools sound a little like some digital health companies that have cultivated patient communities and play the role of an intermediary. They give pharma companies access to valuable patient insights for a fee. Patients feel like they have a tangible influence on pharma companies’ products. Shor has said it is interested in patients gaining greater insight into medication adherence patterns as well.

Photo: Devrimb, Getty Images

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