ResApp and Janssen partner to integrate digital health in clinical trial

Digital & Innovation: ResApp Health, developing smartphone applications for the diagnosis and management of respiratory disease, has secured a three year, non-exclusive licensing agreement with Janssen for the use of its ResAppDx technology in a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) clinical trial.

This agreement was facilitated by Johnson & Johnson Innovation. ResAppDx will be used in a clinical trial conducted by Janssen to assess the respiratory symptoms of a cohort of patients with a range of respiratory diseases, including RSV. The trial will be conducted in the Asia-Pacific, United States, Europe and South America, and is expected to commence later this calendar year.

ResApp Health CEO and Managing Director, Dr Tony Keating, said “Almost 160,000 people die each year worldwide as a consequence of RSV. ResApp Health is proud to be supporting Janssen in further understanding the impact of this disease on individual patients, which may help to inform prevention and treatment strategies.”

A spokesperson from Johnson & Johnson Innovation told Health Industry Hub “Johnson & Johnson Innovation is especially pleased to see this exciting collaboration with ResApp come to fruition. We first engaged with the technology when it was still in development at University of Queensland. Through the Johnson & Johnson Innovation Partnering Office @QUT (JJIPO@QUT), we have been able to follow their journey to NewCo formation and maintain close contact including by providing commercial and scientific mentoring support as ResApp continuously worked to deliver a novel digital healthcare solution for monitoring respiratory disease. In 2016 we were delighted to see ResApp be awarded the Johnson & Johnson Innovation – AusBiotech Industry Excellence Award for the Emerging Company of the Year.

“Here we are today joining the in celebration of this important milestone as they commercialise this technology for the benefit of patients globally. Thanks to Johnson & Johnson Innovation’s commitment to advances in healthcare innovation globally, innovators across Australia and New Zealand are able to connect with us locally as we strive to be as the partner of choice, unlocking ideas for patients around the world who need them the most.”

In reflecting on the digital health ecosystem in Australia, Dr Keating told Health industry Hub “It’s an exciting time for Australian digital health companies with the global shift in healthcare towards digital solutions. In many parts of the healthcare system, current solutions simply can’t keep up with the burden of disease, while digital solutions provide an opportunity to deliver high quality healthcare at-scale to everybody who needs it. Digital, scalable solutions mean that a patient in a village in Africa could have access to the same level of care that a patient who lives a block away from the Cleveland Clinic has. With our technology requiring only a smartphone, we can achieve this.

He added “Digital health offers the opportunity to make breakthrough improvements in healthcare, but it’s important that these solutions are validated as accurate and provide actionable insights for both clinicians and patients. Our partnership with Janssen not only provides validation of our technology from one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, it gets our technology into the hands of leading clinicians across the globe. We work closely with partners to ensure that our solutions make a real difference in patient’s lives.”

Janssen will pay development and maintenance costs in addition to a fee per ResAppDx test to ResApp.