Big Pharma is spending like never before to make sure patients take their drugs. Investors recently committed $172 million for “smart pills” being developed jointly by Proteus Digital Health and Otsuka Pharmaceuticals. After a pill is swallowed, a microscopic device within the pill relays ‘health data’ to a patch worn by the patient, then to a smartphone, and then (if the patient wishes) to doctors and/or pharmaceutical companies.

Likewise, an inhaler for patients with lung diseases to record the date and time of every use is being developed by mobile chip giant Qualcomm with heavy investment from Novartis, which runs research and development in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Doctor’s Best Hi... Buy New $16.00 ($0.18 / Count) (as of 01:05 UTC - Details) Drug makers lose billions annually when patients don’t fill, refill, or take their prescriptions. So, besides developing smart pills and smart inhalers that tell whether meds have or haven’t been taken, Big Pharma is also finding other ways to ‘nag’ patients into taking every pill their doctors prescribe.

Danish drug maker Novo Nordisk works with HealthPrize to reward ‘drug-adherent’ patients with gift cards or charitable donations to their favorite 501(c)3. There are also smart phone apps that remind people to take their pills, talking engagements to teach people how to take their meds properly, and even payment programs to patients willing to tout drugs personally. Biogen, e.g., pays patients to talk about positive experiences with the company’s MS drug Tecfidera.

Doctoru2019s Best Serr... Buy New $12.61 (as of 10:25 UTC - Details) Big Pharma is lobbying the Feds for permission to pay pharmacists to encourage patients to take their pills – no conflict of interest there! Joel White, president of the Council for Affordable Health Coverage, an advocacy group that works with the industry, says that “we’re not pushing pills here, we’re pushing adherence.” But Matt Lamkin, Assistant Professor at the University of Tulsa College of Law who has studied the issue, recognizes a financial motive.

Lamkin says that Big Pharma is using medication adherence programs as marketing tools – but instead of saying they’re boosting drug sales, they reframe that goal as “drug adherence.”

Although failure to take prescribed drugs can cause worse health conditions and drive up medical spending in the US by nearly $300 billion each year, drug taking is a complex issue, with many drugs needlessly prescribed to begin with.

Read the Whole Article

Serrapeptase SerraPet ... Check Amazon for Pricing.

Serra Enzyme 80,000IU ... Buy New $15.99 ($0.18 / Count) (as of 12:25 UTC - Details)

Amazon.com $25 Gift Ca... Buy New $25.00 (as of 11:45 UTC - Details)

Amazon.com $25 Gift Ca... Buy New $25.00 (as of 11:50 UTC - Details)

The Best of Christina Sarich

$post_author: WP_User Object
(
    [data] => stdClass Object
        (
            [ID] => 3492
            [user_login] => Christina Sarich
            [user_pass] => 098fa9926ecb91396bdc376dc6c353cb
            [user_nicename] => christina-sarich
            [user_email] => [email protected]
            [user_url] => 
            [user_registered] => 2013-05-27 14:13:26
            [user_activation_key] => 
            [user_status] => 0
            [display_name] => Christina Sarich
            [type] => wpuser
        )

    [ID] => 3492
    [caps] => Array
        (
            [contributor] => 1
        )

    [cap_key] => wp_capabilities
    [roles] => Array
        (
            [0] => contributor
        )

    [allcaps] => Array
        (
            [edit_posts] => 1
            [read] => 1
            [level_1] => 1
            [level_0] => 1
            [delete_posts] => 1
            [email_single_user] => 1
            [contributor] => 1
        )

    [filter] => 
    [site_id:WP_User:private] => 1
)

get_the_author_meta: 

$bio: 

$bios: Array
(
)