U.K.-based Closed Loop Medicine and Pharmanovia announced this week that they will partner to develop precision medicine combination therapies.
The first product in development will combine a hypertension drug from Pharmanovia’s portfolio with software developed by Closed Loop to provide optimal personalized dosing.
High blood pressure or hypertension is the leading cause of preventable health problems and early death around the world. While many treatments are available for hypertension, poor adherence can be a problem due to adverse events and tolerability issues. The two companies hope improved personalization of dosing can help patients with hypertension achieve better results and reduce adverse events.
Pharmanovia was founded in 2013 and is based in Basildon. It specializes in buying tested drugs and revamping or repurposing them, for example, by changing their formulation from a tablet into a patch or a long-acting medicine. It was acquired by investment firm Triton Partners in 2019 and now markets over 20 medicine brands in 140 markets focusing primarily on cardiovascular and endocrine disease, neurological disorders and cancer.
Closed Loop, which was founded in London in 2017, focuses on specialized digital health software. It aims to combine wearable devices and software to aid patient dosing to maximize benefit and minimize adverse effects. The company already has a single label combination product, CLM-HT01, that combines a medical device software product that can optimize dosing and improve lifestyle factors with an anti-hypertensive drug, as well as combination products aimed at targeting insomnia and chronic pain. Recent trial results suggested this approach can be effective.
This collaboration will combine Pharmanovia’s hypertension treatment portfolio, it acquired commercial rights to five anti-hypertensive drugs from AstraZeneca in 2020, with Closed Loop’s “Software-as-a-Medical Device” dosing optimization technology.
“Through this co-development agreement, we will bring our IP, insight and technical know-how of dose optimized drug plus software integration alongside Pharmanovia’s innovative business model, to enable well-known and trusted brands to be positioned as value-driven precision medicine product solutions globally,” said Hakim Yadi, CEO and co-founder of Closed Loop Medicine, in a press statement.
