Cipla, Wellthy ink pact to offer digital therapeutics for diabetes, cardiovascular diseases

Pharma firm Cipla and Wellthy Therapeutics on Monday announced that they entered into a partnership to offer a combination of pharmacotherapy and digital therapeutics for improved patient outcomes in the chronic therapies of diabetology and cardiology.

Under the agreement, a multi-lingual clinically-validated digital disease management platform will be made available to patients with diabetes or cardiovascular diseases via doctors’ clinics or co-packaging on select Cipla brands.

The platform brings together behavioural science, real world clinical evidence and artificial intelligence to provide real time monitoring, coaching and advice to patients, and virtual clinical assistance to doctors.

This partnership is the result of Cipla’s campaign, Innoventia, which was envisioned as a first-of-its-kind challenge by an Indian pharmaceutical company to encourage innovation-led entrepreneurship and to harness disruptive ideas in health care to fulfil patient needs.

Umang Vohra, MD and global CEO of Cipla, said, “The future of health care will be driven by increased use of technology, and this partnership gives Cipla the ability to offer this combination of prescription drugs and artificial intelligence-powered digital therapeutics to patients in cardio-metabolic health. It will allow patients to make informed decisions and take charge of their own health."

Abhishek Shah, co-founder and CEO of Wellthy Therapeutics, said, “We are excited to work with Cipla to bring digital therapeutics to patients in India. Companion digital therapeutics are redefining the treatment of chronic conditions, by helping personalise and simplify disease management for patients, and driving precision clinical insights to clinicians.”

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of mortality in India today, cutting across the urban-rural divide.

Diabetes and hypertension are significant risk factors leading to CVDs. Over 72 million Indians are estimated to be diabetic while approximately 10 percent of the population is estimated to be pre-diabetic, and 29 percent of the population is estimated to be hypertensive.