Today we announced our latest partnership with the global pharmaceutical company UCB, to develop and bring to market a digital disease management solution for patients with rare diseases.
UCB joins a stellar group of biopharma leaders, including Novo Nordisk, CSL Behring, Roche and Sanofi, among others on our client roster. This latest partnership underscores the overall rapid growth and adoption of digital by biopharma and specifically in rare diseases—where there is important need and huge potential benefit. There are over 6,000 rare diseases affecting 300 million people globally.
Leveraging the BrightInsight® Platform, built on Google Cloud, UCB’s digital disease management solution will first include a mobile patient app to support patients with Myasthenia Gravis (MG), a rare autoimmune disease affecting more than 700,000 people worldwide, which disrupts how nerves communicate with muscles. The solution and its future evolution will help those living with MG better manage their condition, and supports UCB’s commitment to bringing digital solutions to patients with rare diseases to improve overall care and outcomes. The solution will launch in the U.S., with plans to incorporate feedback and patient insights into future versions, and to eventually launch globally.
“We are excited to partner with BrightInsight, strengthening our commitment to addressing unmet needs in the rare disease space, and putting patients at the forefront of our innovations,” said Colin Lake, VP, Head of Digital Business Transformation Neurology, UCB. “MG is a rare, challenging and unpredictable disease, and innovation is urgently needed to better support those living with it. This partnership takes us one step forward in our goal to harness digital solutions and the latest AI technologies to better serve patients and potentially improve their care.”
This is the third partnership we’ve announced in rare diseases, putting BrightInsight at the forefront of transforming outcomes for patients worldwide living with these conditions. We also partnered with Roche to develop a dosing calculator for physicians treating patients with Hemophilia A, and CSL Behring to build a patient app for its flagship drug, Hizentra®, for Primary Immune Deficiency (PID) and Chronic inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP).
Digital can play a critical role in easing several challenges in rare diseases. Because rare diseases can be difficult to diagnose, patients can go years waiting for a diagnosis. That can cause lack of trust in medical providers and, over the long run, lead to lower adherence. Powerful algorithms hosted on a digital platform can accelerate diagnosis and get patients on the right treatment earlier.
Digital solutions also support the patient journey with apps and other digital tools, including medication reminders and tracking tools, information on disease management, patient journals and a secure line of communication with their healthcare providers.
We are delighted to partner with UCB on this initiative as we work towards BrightInsight’s vision of transforming patient outcomes through digital technology.
It has been a strong and busy start to 2022. I look forward to sharing more news with you soon.