Lilly to research real world diabetes with digital health firm Livongo

Eli Lilly and digital health firm Livongo are to collaborate on real-world studies and develop new insights into diabetes.

The research will combine real-world behavioural studies and insurance claims data to advance knowledge about effective interventions in diabetes care.

Goals include measuring the impact of remote diabetes self-management education and support on clinical and healthcare cost outcomes.

The partners want to understand drivers of health behaviours, and how people living with diabetes can stay more actively involved in their health.

Livongo aims to redesign chronic condition management, starting with diabetes, based around a personalised care using data and clinical science.

Last year a study of its digital diabetes care programme, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, showed those using it experienced a decreased likelihood of high and low blood glucose reading.

There was an average 16.4% decrease in high blood glucose and an average 18.4% decrease in the likelihood of having a day with low blood glucose in the study population.

Sherry Martin, vice president of medical affairs at Lilly Diabetes, said: “Collaborating with Livongo is an important step in our research efforts. We hope that our combined expertise will play a key role in empowering people with diabetes to better manage their condition."

Jennifer Schneider, chief medical officer at Livongo, said: “The knowledge we gain from these studies will be incorporated into our diabetes management platform to help drive better health outcomes for our members.”

Pharma companies operating in diabetes are all investing in tech to help patients and doctors manage the condition.

All of the big pharma companies in diabetes have some major real world data and behavioural studies ongoing, reflecting a major shift in the market away from simply providing newer and better medicines.

Lilly, and its rivals like Novo Nordisk, Sanofi and AstraZeneca will soon be competing not just on their medicines, but also on the digital services they can provide to clinicians and patients.

Last month Lilly chose Rimidi to provide the software underpinning its digital diabetes management offering.