ADVERTORIAL
STEPWISE
TO FUTURE RESPIRATORY CARE More than 500 million people worldwide suffer from Asthma and COPD. These major chronic decisions lead to more than 3 million deaths per year. Also, the associated cost burden is significant and exceeds €150 billion in the USA and Europe taken together. A major driver for this disastrous status is insufficient adherence to controller medication, which even after the first prescription has been filled ranges between 30% and 66%. Connected, external “add-on” devices for Asthma and COPD inhalers track patient adherence and connect patients to their physicians and other healthcare providers. In clinical studies, these devices have demonstrated to improve adherence to Asthma and COPD medication and therewith clinical outcomes . Despite the fact, that they also offer advantages for other key stakeholders, like physicians, payers and pharmaceutical
companies, their market adoption has been poor so far. The reasons, we at H&T Presspart believe, are that a stepwise approach to connected respiratory care is needed and that the short-term requirements for mass adoption have not been fully met yet. Long-term connected devices might be “purpose-designed” like a Tesla electric car is around its electric drivetrain, track technique via advanced sensors and might even actively regulate device characteristics, such as the flowrate. For a short-term market success, devices also need to have embedded electronics, but should be simple, intuitive, costefficient and represent limited changes to the status quo. In an effort to realize a broad market adoption in a stepwise manner, H&T Presspart and Cohero Health formed a strategic device development and marketing partnership. As
H&T PRESSPART'S EMDI CONNECTED INHALER
a result, the companies created the first market-ready, fullyembedded, connected metered dose inhaler solution: H&T Presspart’s eMDITM powered by CoheroTM. The eMDI device design is inline with the requirements stated above: It is an evolution of existing metered dose inhaler technology and its connective hardware and software are fully-embedded. The changes to existing MDIs form and function are minimal. As a fully disposable, non-reusable unit, the eMDI secures that users do not need to do anything other than press and breathe, as with their standard MDI. Also, the electronic componentry is separated from the medication delivery pathway and the device incorporates an FDA-approved mechanical dose counter. With our partners, we hope that we can pave the way for a broad market adoption of connected technology in respiratory care. A change is needed, as “drugs don’t work in patients who don’t take them”.
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1 Akdis CA et al., “Global Atlas of Asthma”, EAACI, 2013. 2 GARD, “Chronic respiratory diseases”, http://www.who.int/gard/ publications/chronic_ respiratory_diseases.pdf 3 Akdis CA et al., “Global Atlas of Asthma”, EAACI, 2013. 4 WHO, “Burden of COPD”, http://www.who.int/ respiratory/copd/burden/ en/ 5 Ford ES et al., “Total and state-specific medical and absenteeism costs of COPD among adults aged ≥ 18 years in the United States for 2010 and projections through 2020”, Chest, 2015, 147, 1, 31-45. 6 CDC, “Asthma in the US”, https://www.cdc.gov/ vitalsigns/asthma/ 7 Gibson GJ et al., “The European Lung White Book: Respiratory Health and Disease in Europe”, European Respiratory Society, 2013. 8 NICE, “Smartinhaler for asthma – Medtech innovation briefing”, NICE, 2017. 9 NICE, “Smartinhaler for asthma - Medtech innovation briefing”, NICE, 2017. 10 Jung B, Shears D, “Embedded connected metered dose inhalers meeting requirements for mass adoption”, ONdrugDelivery, 2017, 76, 6, 44-48. 11 Jung B, Shears D, “Embedded connected metered dose inhalers meeting requirements for mass adoption”, ONdrugDelivery, 2017, 76, 6, 44-48. 12 C. Everett Koop.