Companion Solutions: Pharma’s New Strategy to Benefit from Digital Health

Companion solutions have gained interest from pharma companies over the last few years. Hundreds of thousands of drugs could be supported with companion solutions. Enhancing adherence, identifying patients, and generating insights are levers to drive both drug sales and patient engagement. Six distinct types of companion solutions are preferred.

In recent years, we have seen pharmaceutical companies take a more short-term view of how they use digital technologies, including initiatives to support existing or to be launched medicines with digital solutions (companion solutions).

Companion solutions for drugs or medical devices are mobile or web applications designed to enhance treatment, improve patient outcomes, and assist healthcare providers in managing patient health. These include four essential components: the medication or medical device, an app, a sensor for the automatic recording of vital parameters, and additional services such as teleconsultation or home delivery services.

The goals that pharmaceutical companies pursue with the help of companion solutions can be summarized in three main ways: identifying patients, promoting drug sales and, more generally, being able to show doctors something new/innovative. The possible uses of companion solutions are vast. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of prescriptions and freely available medications, medical devices, especially for patients, are also among the possible basic products of a companion solution.

Regulators (FDA) have also started to look at companion solutions (FDA Draft Guidance on Prescription Drug Use-Related Software (PDURS)).

1. Education/Prevention Companion: These solutions provide general education about diseases and treatment options, leading to increased awareness and improved patient adherence. Examples include educational content, lifestyle tracking, health scoring, and goal setting. Bayer’s One A Day Age Factor digital ecosystem exemplifies this category by offering personalized health insights and wellness tracking.
2. Patient Identification/Triage Companion: These tools aid in identifying and triaging patients, directing them to appropriate treatment options. They often include symptom checkers, video consultation services, and health report generation to help guide patients to suitable therapies. Ada Health’s collaboration with Novartis is an example, of using AI-based symptom assessments to guide patients toward specific treatments.
3. Adherence Companion: Adherence solutions are designed to boost medication compliance through reminders, alerts, and refill tracking. These tools can reduce dropout rates, increase medication sales, and improve real-world data (RWD) collection. Medisafe’s partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim on the MyWay app provides adherence support through medication tracking and reminders.
4. Self-Management Companion: Self-management companions empower patients by offering features like symptom tracking, in-app shops, family accounts for monitoring and educational resources. These tools help patients engage actively in managing their health, especially in chronic disease settings. For example, Propeller Health’s app, used with Novartis, supports self-management in respiratory conditions by tracking inhaler usage and providing reminders for adherence.
5. Behavior Change Companion: Focused on lifestyle changes, behavior change companions offer coaching, community support, medication tracking, and personalized behavior programs. These solutions are especially relevant in conditions requiring long-term management, such as diabetes and obesity. Noom Med, for instance, combines GLP-1 weight-loss medications with digital coaching to encourage healthy habits.
6. Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) Companion: RPM companions enable healthcare providers to monitor patients remotely through real-time data transmission, case prioritization alerts, and patient education sources. This category supports conditions that benefit from continuous monitoring, allowing timely interventions. For instance, Kaiku Health, used by Novartis, allows HCPs to remotely track patient symptoms and adjust care as needed.

An ever-increasing number of service providers such as Medisafe, XO-Life, Temedica, Huma, and Propeller Health have already geared their range of services towards the development of companion solutions.

The question for pharmaceutical companies is whether they should set up their own platforms for the large number of their drugs and medical devices or whether they should start looking for one or more service providers right from the start.

Two considerations are useful here:

1. There is still internal uncertainty about what specific benefits companion solutions offer for the company. Selecting a suitable outsourcing partner seems to be the appropriate solution for now, in order to quickly gain experience through the pilot and limit the financial risk. Experience should also be used to create a business case for expanding the companion model to the company’s own product range.
2. Companies that see companion solutions as a future part of their drug portfolio should also consider setting up their own companion platform, as the features are very similar.

Medical apps have shown that they can increase adherence and change user behavior. They have also been proven to help identify patients and provide data about the patient using the app. Using these capabilities in conjunction with a drug or medical device is a logical step for pharmaceutical companies to benefit from digital health technologies in the much shorter term than seems to be the case with DTx solutions, for example. The implementation of companion strategies essentially involves selecting a service provider or creating a platform for multiple drugs.

R2G has been constantly monitoring the global digital health industry since 2010. We provide strategic advice for how to build and grow a successful digital health business within all therapeutic areas, business models, and regions. We are happy to talk and share our experience! For more information reach out to [email protected]