Bang & Olufsen Medicom and AstraZeneca to develop patient-compliance
monitoring device
8 September 2006 Copenhagen, Denmark. Bang & Olufsen Medicom, a
drug-delivery device solutions provider for the pharmaceutical industry, has
announced that it has entered into an agreement with AstraZeneca AB on the
development of a new patient monitor that measures patient compliance. The
companies have signed the agreement to develop an electronic device that
will be used in clinical studies. The device will be designed to register if
patients take their medication correctly — and thereby measure patient
compliance. Details of the agreement are confidential. In a survey
conducted in the US in 2005, nearly two-thirds (64%) of patients who were
prescribed regular medication reported that they have simply forgotten to
take their medication, with 11% saying that this has happened "often" or
"very often”1. This non-compliance is said to cost an estimated $30 billion
(€24.9bn) annual cost to pharmaceutical companies from prescriptions and
repeat prescriptions that are never filled. There are also additional costs
related to Healthcare providers, the government and society in general.
Health-wise, non compliance has serious consequences for the patient
themselves, including hospitalization and in some severe cases, death.
Bang & Olufsen Medicom designs and develops a range of drug delivery
devices that aim to help the patients remember when to take and regularly
track their medication regimes. The company makes tablet reminder devices
that prompt the patient when to take their medication called “The Helping
Hand TM”.
A key focus this year for the company is their novel easy-to-operate
inhaler — “The Assist Actuated Inhaler TM” - which contains a built-in
display showing the number of doses remaining in the canister and a prompt
that reminds the user when to take their medication. Bang & Olufsen
Medicom’s mission is to develop new devices that aim to increase both drug
delivery effectiveness and patient compliance rates. To
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