Bang & Olufsen Medicom and AstraZeneca to develop new patient monitor that measures patient compliance

Bang & Olufsen Medicom has announced that it has entered into an agreement with AstraZeneca on the development of a new patient monitor that measures patient compliance.

The companies have signed the agreement to develop an electronic device that will be used in clinical studies. The device will be designed to register if patients take their medication correctly – and thereby measure patient compliance. Details of the agreement are confidential.

In a survey conducted in the US in 2005, nearly two-thirds (64%) of patients who were prescribed regular medication reported that they have simply forgotten to take their medication, with 11 percent saying that this has happened "often" or "very often" . This non-compliance is said to cost an estimated $30 billion (Euro 24.9bn) annual cost to pharmaceutical companies from prescriptions and repeat prescriptions that are never filled, there are also additional costs related to Healthcare providers, the government and society in general. Health-wise, non compliance has serious consequences for the patient themselves, including hospitalization and in some severe cases, death.

Bang & Olufsen Medicom designs and develops a range of drug delivery devices that aim to help the patients remember when to take and regularly track their medication regimes. The company makes tablet reminder devices that prompt the patient when to take their medication called "The Helping Hand".

A key focus this year for the company is their novel easy-to-operate inhaler - "The Assist Actuated Inhaler" - which contains a built-in display showing the number of doses remaining in the canister and a prompt that reminds the user when to take their medication. Bang & Olufsen Medicom's mission is to develop new devices that aim to increase both drug delivery effectiveness and patient compliance rates.