aging-population

Novartis dissolves agreement to market Pear Therapeutics’ prescription digital therapeutics for substance/ opioid abuse

by

_______________

As San­doz returns mar­ket­ing rights for dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics to Pear, what does it mean for co-pro­mote arrange­ments? (MM&M):

“San­doz, the gener­ics divi­sion of Novar­tis, is alter­ing com­mer­cial course, return­ing mar­ket­ing duties for two pre­scrip­tion dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics (DTx) back to Pear Ther­a­peu­tics. The move, which some had antic­i­pat­ed, comes 18 months after the two signed a co-pro­mo­tion deal.

Since the Sandoz/Pear pact was wide­ly seen as a lit­mus test of sorts for pharma’s role in help­ing dis­trib­ute this nascent tech­nol­o­gy, the com­mer­cial break-up rais­es ques­tions about the via­bil­i­ty of such part­ner­ships going for­ward. It also high­lights the par­ties’ some­times con­flict­ing pri­or­i­ties: [Read more…] about Novar­tis dis­solves agree­ment to mar­ket Pear Ther­a­peu­tics’ pre­scrip­tion dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics for substance/ opi­oid abuse

BrainCheck raises $8 million to digitize cognitive/ neuropsychological assessments and better serve the aging population

by

_______________

This start­up just raised $8 mil­lion to help busy doc­tors assess the cog­ni­tive health of 50 mil­lion seniors (TechCrunch):

“…star­tups increas­ing­ly rec­og­nize oppor­tu­ni­ties to cater to this aging pop­u­la­tion. Some are devel­op­ing prod­ucts to sell to indi­vid­u­als and their fam­i­ly mem­bers direct­ly; oth­ers are com­ing up with ways to empow­er those who work direct­ly with old­er Americans.

BrainCheck, a 20-per­son, Hous­ton-based start­up whose cog­ni­tive health­care prod­uct aims to help physi­cians assess and track the men­tal health of their patients, is among the lat­ter. Investors like what it has put togeth­er, too. Today, the start­up is announc­ing $8 mil­lion in Series A fund­ing co-led by S3 Ven­tures and Ten­sil­i­ty Ven­ture Part­ners. [Read more…] about BrainCheck rais­es $8 mil­lion to dig­i­tize cognitive/ neu­ropsy­cho­log­i­cal assess­ments and bet­ter serve the aging population

Trend: Consumers spend significantly more on digital brain health and neurotechnology apps

by

_____

Peo­ple spent $1.9 bil­lion last year on apps to keep their brains sharp as they age — here’s what actu­al­ly works (Mar­ket­Watch):

“With an aging pop­u­la­tion wor­ried about cog­ni­tive decline and demen­tia, such train­ing pro­grams have seen a burst in pop­u­lar­i­ty in recent years. Con­sumers spent an esti­mat­ed $1.9 bil­lion on dig­i­tal brain health and neu­rotech­nol­o­gy apps in 2018, a four­fold increase from $475 mil­lion in 2012, accord­ing to glob­al data from Sharp­Brains, an inde­pen­dent mar­ket-research firm.

But despite the ris­ing inter­est in cog­ni­tive train­ing, evi­dence of its ben­e­fits is still a mixed bag, experts say. [Read more…] about Trend: Con­sumers spend sig­nif­i­cant­ly more on dig­i­tal brain health and neu­rotech­nol­o­gy apps

Dr. Albert Kwon, CEO of Brainnovations Winner AUGMENTx, wants to harness Augmented Reality to significantly ease access to Neurological Rehabilitation Therapies

by

___

Albert, what sur­prised you the most from the Judges’ ques­tions and feed­back dur­ing the Brain­no­va­tions Pitch Contest?

It was a pleas­ant sur­prise to receive so many votes and such great feed­back, which solid­i­fied my con­vic­tion that there is a great need to cre­ate new ther­a­py options for stroke patients and oth­er neu­ro­log­i­cal injuries, espe­cial­ly giv­en our aging pop­u­la­tion.  Med­ical sys­tems world­wide will strug­gle to han­dle the grow­ing bur­den of chron­ic ill­ness­es unless we start act­ing soon.

In a nut­shell, what is the core idea behind AUG­MEN­Tx?

The core idea is to lever­age visu­al-cog­ni­tive and visu­al-motor/sen­so­ry con­nec­tions of the brain to enhance per­for­mance in dis­ease states.  For exam­ple, mir­ror ther­a­py takes advan­tage of the mir­ror neu­ron path­way to improve post-stroke motor recov­ery and to alle­vi­ate phan­tom limb pain in limb amputees.  And we believe that these ther­a­pies can be deliv­ered on dig­i­tized AR plat­forms, instead of being always con­fined to few spe­cial­ized phys­i­cal reha­bil­i­ta­tion cen­ters.  Why not have them be acces­si­ble from the patient’s home [Read more…] about Dr. Albert Kwon, CEO of Brain­no­va­tions Win­ner AUG­MEN­Tx, wants to har­ness Aug­ment­ed Real­i­ty to sig­nif­i­cant­ly ease access to Neu­ro­log­i­cal Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Therapies

The Canadian Centre for Aging & Brain Health Innovation (CC-ABHI) is looking for trial partners to test innovative solutions

by

—–

Do you have access to an aging pop­u­la­tion inter­est­ed in pilot test­ing some of the most promis­ing inno­va­tions in the aging and brain health sector?

The Cana­di­an Cen­tre for Aging and Brain Health Inno­va­tion (CC-ABHI) invites inter­est­ed seniors’ care and oth­er health ser­vice orga­ni­za­tions to sub­mit an Expres­sion of Inter­est to act as a tri­al part­ner site for its Indus­try Inno­va­tion Part­ner­ship Pro­gram (i2p2).  Tri­al part­ners will have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to gain ear­ly access to new inno­v­a­tive solu­tions in the aging and brain health sec­tor for test­ing and validation.

Note: Tri­al part­ners must be a seniors’ care or oth­er health ser­vice orga­ni­za­tion in Cana­da, or a net­work part­ner of CC-ABHI in the Unit­ed States. At least one of the project par­tic­i­pants, either the appli­cant com­pa­ny or the tri­al part­ner site, must be locat­ed in Canada.

–> Learn more and apply Here.

Relat­ed articles:

Update: To thrive in the Knowledge Age, prioritize Deep work, avoid the Shallows, and Self-Quantify

by

cognitive_performance—————

Time for a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter. Hap­py reading!

New thinking:

New research:

New tools:

Recent & Upcoming events:

Final­ly, here you have a fun visu­al illu­sion — What do you see?

Have a great Hal­loween and month of November,

The Sharp­Brains Team