Drug-Digital Combination: What is the Value for Pharma?
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Introduction
At Voluntis, an Aptar Pharma company, we strongly believe that combining a prescription drug (Rx) with digital therapeutics (DTx), which we call “Digitally Augmented Therapies,” can improve the treatment value, thus leading to a better treatment adherence for patients living with chronic conditions or receiving specific medicine.
According to EvaluatePharma¹, total prescription drug sales are expected to grow from $904Bn in 2020 to $1.4T by 2026. During the same period, $252Bn is considered at risk due to patent expiry. The drug-digital combination supports a drug asset all along its lifecycle, from day one on the market, to the start of decline phase due to the entry of generics and more competitive alternatives. Drug-Digital combinations can even contribute before market approval, starting from phase II of clinical development. Digital therapeutics can build patient-reported evidence that is needed to defend claims when the drug hits the market. For pharma, this is also an opportunity to improve the safety profile of its overall value proposition to patients and providers and increase engagement during virtual trials.
In the coming years, and accelerated through COVID-19 crisis, we can expect DTx to form an important part of clinical and commercial development plans of future drugs. DTx builds on the drug asset and increases its intrinsic value for all stakeholders of the healthcare system. It also contributes to a longer lifespan for the asset and temporarily shields it from the decline phase. To emphasize our point, we identified 6 value drivers for an Rx/DTx approach to drug development and release in the pharmaceutical industry.
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- Evaluate Pharma, “Evaluate Pharma World Preview 2020, Outlook to 2026.” 2020.
