Country for PR: Hong Kong
Contributor: PR Newswire Asia (Hong Kong)
Thursday, July 08 2021 - 04:12
AsiaNet
Otsuka Signs Three-Year Collaboration with Holmusk to Enhance Digital Health and Data Analytics for Global Behavioral Health Programs
PRINCETON, N.J., July 8, 2021 /PRNewswire-Asianet/ --

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization, Inc. ("Otsuka"), 
announces today that it has entered a three-year collaboration with Holmusk 
Inc. ("Holmusk"), a global data science and digital health company building the 
world's largest real-world evidence (RWE) platform for behavioral health.

Together, Otsuka and Holmusk will work to drive a deeper understanding of unmet 
patient needs and real-world outcomes by employing proprietary analytics and 
artificial intelligence (AI) on multiple real-world data sources. These 
insights can have application across Otsuka's portfolio and have the potential 
to improve patient lives. The new collaboration, worth up to US$4 million 
annually, marks an expansion of the existing relationship that started with an 
exploration of real-world outcomes in behavioral health in 2020. 

"Holmusk is a global leader in real-world evidence and owns distinctive data 
assets for behavioral health. This collaboration strengthens Otsuka's 
capabilities in serving people living with complex, chronic diseases," said 
Christoph Koenen, MD, executive vice president, and chief medical officer, 
Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization, Inc. "This is the next 
step in Otsuka's journey to utilize real-world evidence to improve clinical 
development with the goal of achieving better patient outcomes. We look forward 
to working together."

"We're thrilled to collaborate with Otsuka," said Nawal Roy, Holmusk founder 
and CEO. "Their commitment and passion to help patients suffering from poor 
behavioral health aligns with our mission. The expertise they provide to guide 
these efforts ensure we are targeting the right questions and allow us to get 
the most from our digital and analytics assets."

As part of the collaboration, Otsuka's affiliate, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Europe 
Limited ("OPEL"), transferred its Otsuka Health Solutions (OHS) digital assets 
based in the U.K. to Holmusk. OHS improves mental health services delivery 
through predictive analytics. 

"Otsuka remains committed to supporting mental health and this collaboration 
ensures we are invested in the future success of Holmusk, which will continue 
to enhance delivery of care with providers in the UK," said Sahil Kirpekar, 
M.D., head of Business Development at Otsuka. Fraser Finance acted as an 
advisor to Otsuka to support the transfer of the Otsuka Healthcare Solutions 
assets in the UK.

About Otsuka

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. is a global healthcare company with the 
corporate philosophy: "Otsuka–people creating new products for better health 
worldwide." Otsuka researches, develops, manufactures, and markets innovative 
products, with a focus on pharmaceutical products to meet unmet medical needs 
and nutraceutical products for the maintenance of everyday health. 

In pharmaceuticals, Otsuka is a leader in the challenging areas of mental, 
renal and cardiovascular health and has additional research programs in 
oncology and on several under-addressed diseases including tuberculosis, a 
significant global public health issue. These commitments illustrate how Otsuka 
is a "big venture" company at heart, applying a youthful spirit of creativity 
in everything it does. 

Otsuka established a presence in the U.S. in 1973 and today its U.S. affiliates 
include Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization, Inc. (OPDC) and 
Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. (OAPI). These two companies' 1,700 
employees in the U.S. develop and commercialize medicines in the areas of 
mental health, nephrology, and cardiology, using cutting-edge technology to 
address unmet healthcare needs. 

OPDC and OAPI are indirect subsidiaries of Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company, Ltd., 
which is a subsidiary of Otsuka Holdings Co., Ltd. headquartered in Tokyo, 
Japan. The Otsuka group of companies employed 47,000 people worldwide and had 
consolidated sales of approximately USD 13.3 billion in 2020. 


All Otsuka stories start by taking the road less traveled. Learn more about 
Otsuka in the U.S. at www.otsuka-us.com and connect with us on LinkedIn and 
Twitter at @OtsukaUS. Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.'s global website is 
accessible at www.otsuka.co.jp/en/.

About Holmusk

Holmusk is on a mission to reinvent behavioral health and transform lives with 
Real-World Evidence and digital innovation. Headquartered in Singapore and New 
York, Holmusk generates evidence and builds digital solutions to advance 
behavioral health research, innovation, and care. 

NeuroBlu, Holmusk's flagship product, synthesizes Real-World Data (RWD) with 
seamless analytic tools, enabling users to create actionable insights that 
drive behavioral health transformation. NeuroBlu is powered by an 
industry-leading and continually growing behavioral health clinical dataset, 
with over 20 years of data on 560,000+ patients and 20+ million encounters. 
Holmusk uses advanced proprietary analytics to enrich the data, with Natural 
Language Processing and predictive disease models designed specifically for 
behavioral health. Holmusk augments its data and analytic offerings with 
powerful digital solutions that enhance patient engagement, support disease 
self-management, and capture patient-reported outcomes to guide clinical 
decisions and analytics. For more information, please visit www.holmusk.com.

Source: Holmusk
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