Gerresheimer partners with MedTech start-up Adamant Health to revolutionise treatment of Parkinson’s disease
Partners join forces to improve lives of millions of Parkinson’s patients worldwide with a transformative technology-based solution
- Gerresheimer participates in seed-round of the Finnish MedTech company and university spin-off
- Monitoring and personalised medication adjustment in combination is a novum
Gerresheimer AG and the Finnish MedTech start-up Adamant Health Oy partner up to develop a life-changing solution for millions of people worldwide suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The measuring technology and platform in development will address one of the biggest impediments in treating symptoms of Parkinson’s: Determining the optimal time to take symptom suppressing medication. In the future, Adamant Health’s measurement and analysis technology and Gerresheimer’s digital platform solution will help to determine the exact right moment for drug administration and inform patients as well as medical staff about the patient’s treatment and symptom development. The advantage for patients: The symptoms become much more stable and predictable. This allows them to live their everyday lives in a more independent, safe and satisfying way.
“Our common goal is to optimise the treatment of Parkinson’s and to improve the patient’s quality of life dramatically,” said Dietmar Siemssen, CEO Gerresheimer AG. “The investment is part of our strategic expansion into personalised drug delivery devices combined with platform-based and digital disease monitoring. It will also complement our high value solution offering for clients as defined in our strategy process formula G”, he added.
Parkinson's disease is a progressive nervous system disorder and causes reoccurring tremors, stiffness and slowing of movement. While it currently is incurable, medication can significantly alleviate symptoms. The disease affects approximately 10 million patients worldwide.
“We are expecting the number of people with Parkinson’s to more than double within the next 30 years,” said Paulus Carpelan, CEO Adamant Health Oy. “Our measurement and analysis service with its unique technologies aim to help individualising therapies and consequently to improve patients’ quality of life significantly,” he added.
Adamant Health is a start-up firm and a spinoff from the University of Eastern Finland. It aims at revolutionising Parkinson’s therapy based on 15 years of academic research expertise. The company applies scientific insights to the individual analysis of neuromuscular function and motion.
Gerresheimer has participated in the seed round at Adamant Health and is a major industry partner in this round.
By partnering up, Gerresheimer and Adamant Health fill a gap in the therapy of Parkinson’s patients. A combination of monitoring and personalised adjustment of medication is a novelty. In the field of monitoring of the neurodegenerative chronic disease, Adamant Health already holds a unique position: The current technologies used in monitoring disease progression only collects patient’s physical movement data. The sensor used in Adamant Health’s solution links this function with technology called surface electromyography (EMG), i.e., the local measurement of electrical neuromuscular activity.
Parkinson’s disease is caused by the death of certain nerve cells in the brain. This leads to a deficiency of the neurotransmitter dopamine. Among other things, dopamine plays a major role in controlling muscle function – and thus movement. The aim of drug treatment is to normalise the concentration of this neurotransmitter. To achieve this, the medication must be precisely set and adjusted at regular intervals. This is made possible by micropumps such as the D-Mine pump from Gerresheimer.
Adamant Health’s technology is intended for wide use for the benefit of all people suffering from Parkinson’s disease, medication development as well as research. With the partnership, the aim is to combine this technology with personalised medical treatment solutions, such as the existing pump manufactured by Gerresheimer and beyond that make it accessible to all Parkinson patients. This allows the real-time collection and analysis of data and a precise and continuous drug application adjustment at home. A solution, which will significantly improve the lives of millions of affected people.
