COPD

Smart inhaler company Adherium announced last week that it has received 510(k) clearance for over-the-counter sales of its inhaler monitoring device for AstraZeneca’s Symbicort aerosol inhaler, called the SmartTouch for Symbicort.

A socially assistive robot could be key to helping people with COPD manage their condition at home.

New Zealand-based smart inhaler company Adherium, which up until now has distributed its products via pharma sales channels in Europe and Australia, plans to expand into the United States in the first half of 2018 with a direct-to-consumer (and direct-to-payer) strategy.

LifeMap Solutions, the San Jose-California startup behind the ResearchKit app Asthma Health, has launched its second app, COPD Navigator, for free in the app store.

Over the last two years, big pharma has gotten behind the idea of smartphone-connected inhalers for asthma and COPD in a big way.

Adherium, the Australian connected inhaler company that partnered with AstraZeneca earlier this summer, has released data from three small studies of the company's Smartinhaler system.

Teva Pharmaceuticals will acquire Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Gecko Health Innovations (previously known as GeckoCap), a smart inhaler company.

AstraZeneca has partnered with New Zealand-based Adherium Limited, which offers a mobile-enabled inhaler, to incorporate digital health offerings into AstraZeneca’s patient support programs for people with COPD and asthma.

Madison, Wisconsin-based Propeller Health has secured two new FDA clearances for new sensors that are designed to work with two particular inhalers on the market: the Diskus inhaler from GlaxoSmithKline and the Respimat inhaler from Boehringer Ingelheim.

Pharma-related digital health news picked up this week.