Precision medicine using personalised treatments has entered mainstream healthcare. Closed Loop Medicine Ltd aims to level the playing field further with its drug and digital combination products.
The Cambridge-based healthcare company is developing drug and digital therapeutic combination products centred on dose optimisation.
Their most recent study aims to validate development of a novel product that links a drug to a smart phone app, enabling patients with hypertension to personalise and optimise their therapy routine.
The trial, PERSONAL COVID BP, was part-funded by Innovate UK and overseen at Queen Mary University of London.
Technology used in the study allowed patients shielding from COVID-19 to report COVID-19 infection-related symptoms as well as control their blood pressure remotely, on a daily basis, from home.
Closed Loop Medicine evolved its approach to continue studies throughout lockdown, by designing studies to run remotely and through technology development, including the uMED decentralised clinical trial platform.
Patients received drug therapy while using an app to monitor blood pressure and any potential side-effects.
The data will be used to develop a product which will deliver precision control of blood pressure at population health scale. The aim is to address the number one killer in the western world (1), high blood pressure – which, even in the pre-vaccination year of COVID-19 in 2020, killed more people than cancer or COVID-19 (2).
Preliminary data from this study was presented at the ACC 71st Annual Scientific Session, April 2-4, live in Washington, D.C. It will also be published online in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC).
Closed Loop Medical secured a place on the Association of British HealthTech Industries (ABHI) US Accelerator programme in January 2022, and the Company is exploring additional clinical opportunities within the US healthcare system.
Dr Hakim Yadi OBE, CEO and co-founder of Closed Loop Medicine, said: “This represents a key milestone for the company, the last patient dosed and follow-up treatment completed in our interventional clinical study. Our aim is to improve patient outcomes while supporting health systems to better manage patients with long-term conditions through linked remote monitoring and precision drug intervention. The trial design allowed greater patient participation from the comfort and safety of their own home. I am delighted that we were able to successfully complete recruitment, despite the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic. We look forward to presenting the results of this important trial alongside our partners at Queen Mary University of London.”
Dr David Collier, lead trial investigator from Queen Mary University of London, added: “This is an important study in that it allows patients and physicians to collect real-world data to help better inform treatment decisions and monitor patient outcomes. Some of the drugs we use are great at preventing heart attacks and strokes, but frequently cause unwanted side-effects, something this trial sets out to address.
“We are demonstrating through this study that one size does not fit all, but that by using technology in this combined way, we can personalise treatment for the individual. This personalisation seems to have potential to change participants relationship to treatment, as they see the effect of different levels of treatment on their blood pressure whilst carefully checking for unwanted effects. This “personalised dose-response curve” has a meaning for participants and clinicians and we’re excited to confirm its impact on the whole group.
“Participants, some over 80 years of age, became very attached to their remote app and despite it prompting for daily blood pressure recording for three months were upset that they had to delete it at the end of the trial. ‘It was like an angel at my shoulder,’ said one participant.”
1. https://www.cdc.gov/bloodpressure/facts.htm
2. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2778234
