A Prescription for Mobile Pharma Apps!

A prescription for mobile pharma apps!

The pharmaceutical industry, which spends more on marketing than research, has a dismal track record when it comes down to developing mobile applications.

However, the Johnson & Johnson Official 7 Minute Workout app may finally have turned the tables and given Big Pharma a fighting chance before Apple, Google and Samsung takeover digital health.

Johnson & Johnson Official 7 Minute Workout and the app market

J&J Official 7 Minute Workout application recently announced a partnership with U.S. pharmacy chain Walgreens’ Balance Rewards for healthy choices program. Since Walgreens’ previous collaborations has been primarily with technology companies, like Jawbone, Fitbit, iHealth etc. how is Big Pharma going to finally get back in the mobile app development game?

Johnson & Johnson’s app, with more than 1.3 million downloads, has a significantly higher popularity when compared with the 6.6 million downloads in the past 7 years, for apps from all leading pharma companies combined.

Based on a research report published last year, pharmaceutical companies developed more than 40,000 apps, however downloads and usage weren’t at par with apps from other industries.

Two primary reasons cited for the limited success of pharma apps have been that the “app portfolio is not globally available” and apps are “built around core products of the pharma companies and not around actual market demand”.

J&J’s focus on fitness and that too in 7 minutes, has clearly found a global market demand, which is different to those buying their baby shampoo.

Actually, the app not only made Men’s Fitness list of top 10 fitness apps for 2014, it also topped the internal J&J blog for the most read stories last year.

We tried it too and while we may not participate in any upcoming triathlon, we definitely are addicted! It’s convenient to do and provides the high impact energy exercise needed without consuming a lot of time.

Which other Pharma apps have become popular?

Other apps, which topped the popularity charts are Sanofi’s GoMeals (a nutrition database can tell you what's in your meal before you pick up your fork) and Janssen’s Care4Today (providing the tools to take your medication on time). They also meet the same criteria as J&J’s workout app of being global in design and not focusing on any specific product.

The focus on mobile health is becoming the “next big thing” for Apple, Google and Samsung.

Apple has introduced, through its Apple HealthKit feature, capabilities to not only monitor health metrics but also change the way clinical trials will be performed in the future.

Announcements made at the recent Apple WorldWide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, also introduced capabilities where HealthKit can now measure women’s menstruation cycles, the skin’s UV exposure as well the body’s water hydration levels.

What will the Pharma app market look like soon?

Ernst & Young assessed that “social media channels will generate significant health care data — from 50 petabytes today to 25,000 petabytes by 2020”; a petabyte is a million gigabytes (GB)!

However, before app developers let their creativity run wild, there are regulations, which need to be complied with since apps can get classified as medical devices. The FDA has published guidelines, on when an app crosses the threshold and becomes a medical device.

With Walgreens now incentivizing “doing everyday healthy activities” to earn Balance® Rewards customer loyalty points, and Apple’s sensors monitoring body functions and activity levels, a new wave of technology integration is getting ready to surround us.

The success of Johnson and Johnson’s app clearly shows that the pharmaceutical companies who will win, are going to be the ones focused on improving the health of patients and not those just trying to find a new way to distribute their medicines.

After Pfizer’s failed efforts to promote their stop-smoking drug Chantix their new app, Quitter’s Circle is clearly a step in the right direction. The app is designed to help those who want to quit smoking through educational, social and financial support and does not promote Chantix at all.

Our view

While Big Pharma is working on developing apps, there are new age competitors who are waiting to attack in case the pharmaceutical industry fails.

Google’s establishment of Calico, their bio-tech initiative, headed by ex-Genentech CEO and former chairman of the board at Apple, Arthur Levinson is just one such example.

The big question going forward, as both big pharm and the technology giants, focus on digital health is who does a better job taking care of the wellness of people?

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“ The article is based on the information available in public and which the author believes to be true. The author is not disseminating any information, which the author believes or knows, is confidential or in conflict with the privacy of any person. The views expressed or information supplied through this article is mere opinion and observation of the author. The author does not intend to defame, insult or, cause loss or damage to anyone, in any manner, through this article.”

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