Takeda has already put DTC advertising and disease awareness efforts behind inflammatory bowel disease med Entyvio. This time, it’s going beyond the pill.
The Japanese drugmaker is launching a wearable digital tech program to help IBD patients and their doctors work together to manage their IBD. Dubbed iBData, the program will put watches on patients to track their symptoms and lifestyle, generating collectable data that can then be translated into reports.
Takeda, along with partners Texas Digestive Disease Consultants and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, are hoping those reports will be able to “enhance patient-physician interaction” by adding substance to doctor-patient conversations and helping patients themselves better understand their condition, the company said.
Even better, giving patients the power to capture real-time data on their symptoms will help their doctors create personalized treatment plans, VUMC assistant professor Dawn Beaulieu said in a statement.
"Our hope is that this will ultimately result in better disease control and improved IBD care," Beaulieu said.
Takeda hopes some of those personalized treatment plans will include Entyvio, the IBD med it’s been counting on to help get profits back on track. In the company’s last fiscal year, Entyvio came through, spurring a 23.6% year-over-year sales jump for Takeka's GI portfolio--and Takeda thinks that’ll continue in its 2018 fiscal year, when it’s predicting Entyvio sales will top $2 billion in constant currencies.
Takeda isn’t just relying on the wearable tech pilot to help the med get there, though. Back in February, it launched a TV spot asking patients if it was “time for a different perspective” than behind a bathroom door, as well as similarly themed print ads, digital ads, and in-office and email marketing.
More recently, it teamed up with Marvel Custom Solutions to create a company-sponsored superhero, Samarium, who has the power to suit up instantly in magnetic and impenetrable full-body armor--but also suffers from the bowel condition.
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