Why Pharma Wants to Put Sensors in This Blockbuster Drug

Getting people to take their pills is hard, especially with mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. But to use the language of techno-optimism: “There’s an app for that!”

In September, the Food and Drug Administration accepted an application to evaluate a new drug-sensor-app system that tracks when a pill’s been taken. The app comes connected to a Band Aid-like sensor, worn on the body, that knows when a tiny chip hidden inside a pill is swallowed -- so if patients aren’t keeping up with their medications, the program can alert their doctors. The drug here is Abilify, a popular antipsychotic from the pharmaceutical giant Otsuka, and the sensor and the app come from Proteus Digital Health, a California-based health technology company. The FDA has already approved the drug and the sensor system separately -- now, they’ll be evaluated together under a whole new category of “digital medicines.” If approved, the ingestible sensor can actually be used in the pill.