U.S. regulators have approved the first
drug with a sensor that can track whether patients have taken their medicine.
The Abilify pill was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2002 to treat schizophrenia, and the sensor technology was approved for marketing in 2012. The FDA said in a statement Monday that the
digitally-enhanced medication "works by sending a message from the pill's sensor to a wearable patch.""Being able to track ingestion of medications prescribed for illness may be useful for some patients," Dr. Mitchell Mathis of the FDA said in statement. "The FDA supports the development and use of new technology in prescription drugs and is committed to working with companies to understand how this technology might benefit patients and prescribers."
Abilify MyCite was developed by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. and the sensor was created by Proteus Digital Health.
Greenlighting the new digital version, however, came with some caveats.
While the system can track doses, it hasn't been shown to improve patient compliance, the FDA said.
"Abilify MyCite should not be used to track drug ingestion in 'real-time' or during an emergency," the statement said, "because detection may be delayed or may not occur."
Patients can track their dosage on their smartphone and allow their doctors or caregivers to access the information through a website.
In a statement issued last May at the time the FDA accepted submission of product for review, the companies said "with the patient's consent, this information could be shared with their healthcare professional team and selected family and friends, with the goal of allowing physicians to be more informed in making treatment decisions that are specific to the patient's needs."
The companies said
the sensor "activates when it reaches stomach fluids and communicates with the patch."The FDA said
digital Abilify is approved for the treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and as an add-on treatment for depression in adults.
Comment: As Dr. Carolyn Dean wrote in one of her latest email newsletters:
What will appeal to the Millennial Generation is the fact that they will be able to track their drug dosage on smartphones. Having grown up with 24/7 surveillance, they might not even mind their doctor and government knowing their vital statistics. But if there is electronic data, it can be hacked by anyone or used against them in some nefarious way.
Bottom line, allopathic Big Brother is following chipped drugs to make sure people are taking them. However according to the above article "The pill has not yet been shown to actually improve patients' medication compliance." So, how will doctors force compliance, what will be the punishment if patients don't comply? Arthur Caplan, a medical ethicist at NYU asks. "Is the doctor going to start yelling at me? Am I going to get a big accusatory speech?" Or will the chip have an additional app that will shock a person when they are supposed to take their next pill - and keep on shocking them until they do?
James Giordano, a professor of neurology at Georgetown University Medical Center was asked, "'Could this type of device be used for real-time surveillance? The answer is of course it could."
And what exactly is being so cavalierly injected into our bodies? What are the health effects of having sensors that are triggered by electromagnetics! Where do they end up? The possible pitfalls are staggering. But also staggering is the fact that we have no way of preventing this technology from being implemented - the FDA has already sanctioned it!
See also:
Comment: As Dr. Carolyn Dean wrote in one of her latest email newsletters: See also: