Digital most cancers care firm Kaiku Well being has entered right into a strategic partnership with pharma and diagnostics big Roche to supply Kaiku’s instruments for symptom administration and assist to clinics and sufferers.
Finnish-born Kaiku supplies a digital platform the place sufferers can enter their signs as they endure most cancers remedy, obtain suggestions for lower-acuity considerations and hold the care staff knowledgeable to allow them to intervene and supply assist when vital.
The businesses mentioned their long-term aim is to develop and supply extra digital well being instruments “by means of a multi-partner ecosystem,” in addition to advocate for reimbursement for monitoring and administration platforms.
“Kaiku Well being and Roche share a dedication to make personalised healthcare out there for extra sufferers by means of digital options. Collectively now we have already developed remedy and product-specific modules in most cancers immunotherapy and different focused therapies,” Kaiku CEO and cofounder Lauri Sippola mentioned in a press release.
“Now we’re excited to take our partnership additional and to increase the attain of digital affected person monitoring and administration when it comes to geography, and throughout new therapies and most cancers varieties, for a rising variety of sufferers.”
WHY IT MATTERS
This is not Kaiku’s first pharma partnership. A few yr in the past, the corporate teamed up with Novartis to monitor and handle melanoma, a sort of pores and skin most cancers. Earlier than the corporate was acquired by Swedish oncology firm Elekta in 2020, it partnered with Amgen to supply digital symptom-tracking for a number of myeloma, a sort of bone marrow most cancers.
Roche is pitching the collaboration as a means to enhance care and outcomes for most cancers sufferers.
“Digital options have gotten more and more vital for delivering high quality care to sufferers. This partnership is a major step towards delivering digital affected person monitoring and administration options which will assist enhance outcomes corresponding to symptom burden and high quality of life for people receiving systemic remedy for most cancers,” Dr. James Sabry, international head of pharma partnering at Roche, mentioned in a press release.
THE LARGER TREND
Digital well being and pharma partnerships aren’t unusual. Final week, prescription digital therapeutics startup MedRhythms entered right into a licensing settlement with Biogen to develop and commercialize its MR-004 product, which goals to deal with gait deficits in folks with a number of sclerosis.
In January, Swedish startup Alex Therapeutics entered right into a strategic business partnership with Pfizer to construct digital therapeutics for nicotine dependancy. Alex, which lately raised €3.5 million, provides a platform made to assist pharma and life science companions create and launch digital therapeutics.
Different corporations within the digital most cancers care and prevention area embody Jasper Well being, which introduced a $25 million Sequence A increase in February. Reimagine Care, which focuses on providing in-home care, additionally lately scored $25 million. CancerIQ, which goals to find out a person affected person’s most cancers danger, introduced a $14 million Sequence B in March.
