Novartis and Pear Therapeutics have joined forces to develop digital therapeutic software applications to treat patients with schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis, reports World Pharma News. Novartis is known for the biomedical research expertise, while Pear is known for their digital therapeutics experience in implementation, as well as design.
Schizophrenia is an mental condition with varying psychological symptoms and multiple sclerosis is a debilitating disorder that affects the central nervous system. Both companies are hoping to come together to treat schizophrenia and MS patients through cognitive behavioral therapy using desktop and mobile applications. They are hoping that once they are approved, they can be prescribed alongside medication therapies with hopes to treat a disease even grander than before.
When you have a neurodegenerative or mental health condition there are heavy burdens of mental, physical and economic demand. President of Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, M.D. Jay Bradner, shared that these digital therapies have great potential to aid patients with unmet medical needs in the near future.
THRIVE, Novartis’ digital therapeutic for schizophrenia, has shown strong potential in the early stages of clinical trials. THRIVE showed retention, usability and efficiency. Going off this early upswing, both companies will come together to develop a digital therapy for MS.
This collaboration is hoping to help drive a new wave of innovation in the medical and digital health industries. Technology in the medical realm is booming with the rise of precision medicine and advancement of artificial intelligence. Novartis is hoping to use their skills with the support of Pear to provide technologies that can do real-time patient monitoring, looking at biological and behavioral fluctuations. Additionally, they hope this technology will improve patient commitment to their therapy, and enable better treatments for better outcomes. With the help of Pear, a leading development company for prescription therapeutics, things are looking up.
