Voluntis and Roche Pharma France reinvent cancer patient support with digital therapeutics

Today, Voluntis and Roche Pharma France announced that important milestones have been reached in the development of ZEMY, a digital therapeutic developed by Roche Pharma France in partnership with Voluntis since 2015. ZEMY aims to improve care support for breast cancer patients. Its co-construction with various stakeholders (patients, healthcare professionals, etc.) has been critical in developing its medical algorithms and validating its ease of use.

A multi-center clinical study has been initiated to evaluate adherence to the ZEMY solution as well as potential improvement in patients’ quality of life. Voluntis and Roche will seek regulatory clearance for this innovative software medical device.

In addition, both partners have agreed to broaden their collaboration by extending ZEMY to all solid tumors, through Voluntis’ Theraxium platform. Voluntis and Roche have therefore expanded their licensing and co-development agreement, in which Voluntis acts as the legal manufacturer of ZEMY, heading its technology and regulatory development, and Roche leads the clinical evaluation process and the future commercialization of the solution to oncology centers.

“We have mobilized our complementary expertise to co-develop a solution that could help the self-management of symptoms while allowing the patient to stay in touch with their care team,” said Pierre Leurent, CEO of Voluntis. “We are very happy to expand our collaboration with Roche, the world leader in oncology, by extending ZEMY to all solid cancers. This partnership rigorously demonstrates how a digital therapeutic can benefit patient care.”

“At Roche, we always want to push ourselves to help patients more” said Christine Lhomel, Director of Medical Operations and Scientific Relations at Roche Pharma France. “We think that digital therapeutics like ZEMY can help breast cancer patients, and one day all cancer patients, better manage the symptoms related to their cancer treatment and thus make their daily lives a little easier.”

About ZEMY

ZEMY allow patients to independently manage symptoms associated with their treatment, by enabling remote monitoring. The patient declares symptoms, such as nausea, diarrhea, fatigue, pain, etc., via a smartphone app. In real time, the app makes personalized recommendations to manage these symptoms, thanks to a set of clinical algorithms, and sends the data to the care team. The care team can remotely follow the progress of their entire patient population via a corresponding web app. To guarantee the quality of the patient recommendations, the algorithms in ZEMY were created using the international recommendations of recognized oncology organizations such as the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), and the French Association for Oncological Supportive Care (AFSOS). The algorithm parameters are defined by the healthcare professional when they prescribe ZEMY.

About Voluntis

Voluntis creates digital therapeutics that empower people suffering from chronic conditions to self-manage their treatment in remote collaboration with their health care teams. Combining mobile and web apps, Voluntis’ solutions deliver personalized recommendations to the patient and the care team that so that they can, for example, adjust treatment dosage, manage side effects or monitor symptoms. These real-time recommendations are based on digitized clinical algorithms that draw on solid medical foundations and are bound by multiple rules of data security. Voluntis’ products aim to improve real-world outcomes as well as enable personalized healthcare and telemedicine. Leveraging its Theraxium technology platform, Voluntis has designed and operates multiple digital therapeutics. These include Insulia and Diabeo in diabetes as well as eCO and ZEMY in oncology. Voluntis has long-standing partnerships with leading life science companies such as Roche, AstraZeneca, Sanofi and Onduo. It is a founding member of the Digital Therapeutics Alliance.

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