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Happy Wednesday, readers.
Kicking off in late 2017, the Apple Heart Study—a collaboration between the tech giant and Stanford Medicine meant to examine whether or not the Apple Watch could help assess heart health—attracted more than 400,000 participants. And the company isn’t pulling back from its health care push anytime soon.
Apple has partnered with Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen (the firm’s pharmaceutical arm) to test whether or not wearables such as the Apple Watch can detect atrial fibrillation (AFib), a heart condition which afflicts between 2.7 million and 6.1 million Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
AFib is, simply put, a form of irregular heart rhythm. It can be a major risk factor for cardiovascular catastrophe such as strokes and is cited as the underlying cause of death in tens of thousands of people every year. And the scary part is that it can often go completely undetected.
The J&J-Apple partnership is being dubbed the Heartline study, as my colleague Don Reisinger reports. It’s the latest example of a burgeoning trend in digital health to collect “real world” data, i.e. health data that doesn’t require a special clinical environment.
This specific project is aimed at elderly Americans on Medicare who are at higher risk for both AFib and heart problems generally. It will provide a combination of heart health tips through an app and collect the heart rhythms of one group of participants.
Over the course of three years, Johnson & Johnson researchers will assess whether or not this kind of continuous biometric data can help predict an oncoming cardiac event.
Expect even more of these health care efforts from Apple, if CEO Tim Cook’s own words are any indication.
Read on for the day’s news.
Sy Mukherjee
sayak.mukherjee@fortune.com
@the_sy_guy
DIGITAL HEALTH
One industry the coronavirus is boosting. The coronavirus has been anything but a blessing for businesses ranging from tech to drug development. But the outbreak in China is boosting at least one sector—the country's virtual doctor consultation industry. In the midst of quarantines (and general hesitation to go out in public), Chinese consumers are turning to such services, which traditionally haven't gained much of a foothold in the country. (Reuters)
INDICATIONS
Gilead's coronavirus drug to be tested in U.S. Gilead's experimental antiviral remdesivir is already being tested to treat COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus strain, in China. And now, it will be the first coronavirus treatment to go into human clinical trials in the U.S. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) confirmed that the drug is being tested by University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) clinicians in a volunteer patient who was on the cruise ship Diamond Princess. There are high hopes for the treatment, which one top World Health Organization (WHO) official called the only current drug "that we think may have real efficacy" against the disease. (Fortune)
Takeda to pursue second celiac drug. Japan's Takeda is buying PvP Biologics in a deal that could be worth up to $330 million. The M&A adds another celiac disease drug to Takeda's pipeline. The initial clinical data for the experimental treatment, TAK-062, hasn't been made public yet—but is expected to be at a medical conference in the next several months. (FierceBiotech)
THE BIG PICTURE
Mixed messaging in the U.S. on the coronavirus threat. President Donald Trump has claimed that the U.S. is "in very good shape" when it comes to the coronavirus. But American public health officials are sounding a different note. "We are asking the American public to work with us to prepare with the expectation that this could be bad," said the CDC's Dr. Nancy Messonnier during a briefing on Tuesday, warning that Americans should prepare for the possibility of disruptions to their daily lives, including telecommuting to work and school closures. On the same day, the Trump administration said it would transfer tens of millions of dollars from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including from programs such as energy and heating assistance for the poor, to the coronavirus response. (Reuters)
REQUIRED READING
China deploys a favorite weapon in the coronavirus fight, by Grady McGregor
Ripple claims a big win in quest to use cryptocurrency in banking, by Jeff John Roberts
A new coronavirus test in Singapore is providing clues about how the outbreak spreads, by Elffie Chew & Bloomberg
