Singapore-based Holmusk announced a collaboration with the Healthcare business sector of Merck, a leading science and technology company to support patients and physicians in Asia-Pacific with a holistic treatment approach for prediabetes and diabetes. This partnership involves Holmusk's GlycoLeap, a leading mobile digital therapeutics platform that utilizes a highly data-driven approach to deliver personalized dietary feedback, interactive educational lessons, and 1-1 guidance with a qualified health coach. The goal is to help patients achieve weight loss and improved blood glucose control.

Lifestyle and behavior change are foundational for good management of patients with prediabetes & diabetes, yet often difficult to implement by healthcare providers due to limited resources and lack of time. Digital health solutions like GlycoLeap have the potential to track, personalize and influence patient behaviors in an effective, engaging and scalable way.

By linking patients with a personal health coach, GlycoLeap will complement medications for diabetes and prediabetes and contribute to diabetes prevention and improving chronic disease outcomes. The Diabetes Prevention Program randomized clinical trial demonstrated that lifestyle intervention and metformin therapy reduced progression to diabetes by 58 and 31%, respectively, in people at-risk of Type 2 diabetes1. 

Dr. Ulrike Hostalek, Executive Medical Director and Head of GMA General Medicine and Endocrinology at the Healthcare business sector of Merck, said:

"Expanding the therapeutic offering beyond the medication is a key pillar of how we envisage to support patients and contribute to better treatment outcomes. Lifestyle intervention plays a critical role in controlling Impaired Fasting Glucose. With Holmusk we are glad to have found a partner who is able to deliver an evidence-based and scalable program to relevant patients across South East Asia, a region highly impacted by Prediabetes. We are also very pleased to further develop our partnership with Holmusk after their successful participation at the "Merck 350 research challenge – Changing the world of Prediabetes" in 2018."

Dr Yau Teng Yan, Chief of Digital Therapeutics at Holmusk, said:

"This is an important step in the right direction to provide patients in Asia-Pacific with a culturally-tailored digital tool for holistic care. We've never been more excited to work with Merck, who is fully aligned with our vision to improve patient outcomes and pioneer beyond-the-pill solutions for its patients."

Beginning with China, Malaysia and Hong Kong, S.A.R., China, patients with diabetes and/or prediabetes, depending on the Marketing Authorisation in each country, will be able to get access to GlycoLeap through their doctors later this year.

References

Vanita R. Aroda, Robert E. Ratner. Metformin and Type 2 Diabetes Prevention. Diabetes Spectrum 2018 Nov; 31(4): 336-342

About Merck

Merck, a leading science and technology company, operates across healthcare, life science and performance materials. Around 57,000 employees work to make a positive difference to millions of people's lives every day by creating more joyful and sustainable ways to live. From advancing gene editing technologies and discovering unique ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enabling the intelligence of devices – the company is everywhere. In 2019, Merck generated sales of € 16.2 billion in 66 countries.

Scientific exploration and responsible entrepreneurship have been key to Merck's technological and scientific advances. This is how Merck has thrived since its founding in 1668. The founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed company. Merck holds the global rights to the Merck name and brand. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the business sectors of Merck operate as EMD Serono in healthcare, MilliporeSigma in life science, and EMD Performance Materials.

About Holmusk

Holmusk is a data science and digital therapeutics company on a mission to transform the lives of people with behavioral health and chronic diseases through evidence-driven medicine. Headquartered in Singapore with a global footprint, it is building the world's largest Real-World Evidence platform for mental health and chronic diseases and enabling engaging behavioral change programs for individuals.