Relay Medical Develops Pharmatrac Swift, a Plug and Play Solution for Tracking of High Value Medications
Newsfile Corp.
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - June 27, 2019) - Relay Medical Corp. (CSE: RELA) (OTCQB: RYMDF) (FSE: EIY2) ("Relay" or the "Company"), an engine of MedTech innovation, is pleased to report on extensions to the Pharmatrac platform to address the challenge of tracking expensive medications that are compromised if not properly stored.
Highlights:
Extended digital medication label design to accommodate blister packs, to broaden the medication packaging form factors with which Pharmatrac is compatible.
Completed Pharmatrac Plug 'n' Play (PnP) prototype, part of medication monitoring solution for pharmacists to distribute Pharmatrac technology to patients; it is optimized for ease of setup by pharmacists and no setup for the patient. The patient simply takes the Pharmatrac PnP home from the pharmacy, plugs it into AC power, and is up and running.
Validated market demand for insurers to be alerted if a patient's medication is spoiled, a value proposition that could save an insurer or payer $60,000 for each event detected and defray the costs of patients' condition worsening as a result of unknowingly consuming spoiled medication.
Advancing engagement with international HMOs and pharmacy chains at home to select initial pre-commercial pilot partners.
Medications come in various formats: pill bottles, blister packs, suspensions, and ointments. The Pharmatrac platform is being developed to provide solutions for each of these formats through the design of digital medication labels and other consumer facing hardware products as well as partnering with third-party suppliers of complementary digital label solutions.
Relay adapted the design of its digital label for pill bottles in order to be compatible with blister packs. The design is intended for the pharmacist to attach the digital label to one or more blister pack sheets before returning all into original medication packaging.
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The medication protocol is uploaded to the digital label before the patient leaves the pharmacy. The label is also paired with an in-home counter-top appliance. The patient simply plugs the appliance into an AC power supply once he/she returns home; it automatically connects to the local mobile phone network. No setup or configuration is required.
The appliance and label notify the patient when it is time to take their medication. The label operates autonomously even beyond connectivity range of the appliance. It provides reminders, logs dose confirmations, and tracks temperature and humidity. All the data it uploaded to the Pharmatrac cloud once the label returns within connectivity range of the appliance.
"Adherence to medication treatment and home-based management of multiple medications is a painful and complex problem, affecting all of the stakeholders in the medication ecosystem. The PT system is designed to facilitate the patient and their caregiver, while increasing business efficiencies for the pharmacy chain, improving visibility for the doctors and reducing losses for the Payors. Providing the relevant data analytics and intervention strategies to each of these stakeholders is critical to forming a holistic systems-approach solution and creating large scale clinical and commercial impact," said Lahav Gil, CEO, Relay Medical Corp.
Opportunity
The Pharmatrac PnP is an enterprise solution tuned to address the use case whereby an insurer partners with a pharmacy to have Pharmatrac distributed in particular to patients whose medications are sensitive to storage temperature. Some medications for instance can spoil if left in a hot car for a short while and others yet (e.g., biologics) can spoil if not refrigerated.
A refill of spoiled medications can cost the insurer $6,000 to $60,000 for one month's supply. The insurer is responsible for costly hospital visits if the patients' condition worsens because they unknowingly use spoiled medications.
Relay intends to extend functionality of the Pharmatrac cloud such that it will alert doctors and pharmacologists if patients are not taking their medication as directed or if the medications were not properly stored.
Relay is currently in discussions with international payors, HMO's and various local chains of pharmacies to select pilot partners for Pharmatrac PnP and other Pharmatrac platform products.
Relay Medical Video
A video has been posted to the company's website which can be found here: www.relaymedical.com
Pharmatrac Market
Medication non-adherence is a world-wide problem that costs payors and healthcare systems billions of dollars annually and puts consumers at significant risk. There is a growing need for assistance in the management of medications and for information related to adherence to improve efficiencies in the pharmaceutical ecosystem.
Prescriptions have risen by approximately 85% since 1997(1) to an estimated 4.5 billion a year in the United States and while seniors make up only 12% of the population they account for over 30% of all over-the-counter medication use(2). Individuals have a difficult time managing their medications which results in un-necessary hospital admissions, in 2014 nearly 1.3 million US citizens sought emergency room treatment for adverse drug effects and approximately 124,000 died(1).
In North America it is estimated that patient compliance and medication adherence is less than 50%(3) which means more than half of patients/consumers are likely to improperly take or skip medications, appointments, and other treatment protocols.
Footnotes
1 Source: Consumer Reports (2017) 2 Source: APHA (2010) 3 Source: The World Health Organization (2003)
Pharmatrac System
The Pharmatrac is a UX-centric (user experience) system designed to improve management and identification of medications. The system offers sophisticated smart solutions to patients, caregivers and other stakeholders in the pharmaceutical prescription lifecycle.
The digital medication label is designed to communicate seamlessly with the hardware and software apps in the current product release pipeline, to create a comprehensive suite of products and services to cater to the needs of patients and care givers. The hardware and apps will enhance and simplify medication management for both patient and caregiver, as well as gathering rich data for the patient/caregiver and for the Providers and Payors. The cloud-based AI, analytics and predictive algorithms will provide unprecedented value to all stakeholders.
The 1st generation Pharmatrac is planned for commercial launch in 2020.
About Relay Medical Corp.
Relay Medical is an evolving "Integrated MedTech Accelerator" headquartered in Toronto, Canada, acquiring early-stage technologies and inventions, advancing and preparing them for pre-commercial acquisitions in the HealthTech marketplace. By integrating the funding, development and exit process into one organization led and managed by one expert team, Relay Medical is building the capacity to accelerate and transact technologies with high efficiency and grow into a leading engine for MedTech innovation in the global HealthTech marketplace.
Contact: W. Clark Kent President Relay Medical Corp. Office. 647-872-9982 ext. 2 TF. 1-844-247-6633 ext. 2 investor.relations@relaymedical.com
Bernhard Langer EU Investor Relations Office. +49 (0) 177 774 2314 Email: blanger@relaymedical.com
Forward-looking Information Cautionary Statement
Except for statements of historic fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements including, but not limited to delays or uncertainties with regulatory approvals, including that of the CSE. There are uncertainties inherent in forward-looking information, including factors beyond the Company's control. There are no assurances that the commercialization plans for the HemoPalm product described in this news release will come into effect on the terms or time frame described herein. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties that could affect financial results is contained in the Company's filings with Canadian securities regulators, which filings are available at www.sedar.com
