Audit firm Ernst & Young said in a recent report that consumer electronics companies Nintendo and Apple, Inc. are helping drug makers bring their products to customers as looming health-policy changes and new technologies force them to seek non-traditional marketing methods. As well, global drug sale growth through the year 2013 are only expected to be 4-7% due to the impending expiration of patents on some of the industry’s most profitable drugs. Bayer AG has already teamed up with Nintendo to produce a glucometer for use by children, which attaches to the Nintendo DS portable video game player. Johnson & Johnson is currently working with Apple, Inc. to create an iPhone application which would allow diabetics to better monitor their disease. Ernst & Young states that 92% of business executives surveyed for the report expect that new medical technology, mobile and electronic health companies will most likely be the new partners for pharmaceutical companies for product distribution. [via Businessweek]
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Dr. Steven Chang, the author of DailyDose, is a staff physician with Kosmix RightHealth. Dr. Chang practices Family Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center, where his medical interests include both pediatric and geriatric care, public health, gay and lesbian health, and sleep medicine. Dr. Chang trained at the Stanford University affiliated O'Connor Hospital, and was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health. He holds an M.D. from McGill University and a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.