A collaboration has been announced that will allow inhalers to automatically track usage, which the users can view and provide feedback on with a mobile app.
Finnish-based Orion’s existing line of inhalers, used by asthma and COPD sufferers, will be given a custom-built sensor to connect the medical device to a digital medicine platform. The digital system will be provided by US Propeller Health and will expand the digital therapeutics company's European presence.
David Van Sickle, co-founder and CEO of Propeller Health, said: "People and their physicians are eager for medicines that put digital to work to improve their treatments and quality of life. This partnership with Orion is another significant step toward reducing the burden of chronic respiratory disease for people around the world."
The US FDA approved the first digital inhaler for asthma and COPD for the market in December 2018. Development of the new sensor will begin in 2019, with clinical trials, possible real-world evidence projects and a broader commercial rollout to follow.