Ohad Arazi, President and CEO of Clarius Mobile Health, at his office and manufacturing area in Vancouver on Dec. 15, 2023.Marlin Olynyk /The Globe and Mail
Swiss pharma giant Novartis AG has struck a deal with Vancouver medical device maker Clarius Mobile Health Corp. to put hundreds of its wireless handheld ultrasound scanners in the hands of rheumatologists across Canada, enabling quicker diagnoses of a common form of arthritis.
The deal, set to be announced Monday, will see Novartis lease and distribute up to 400 of the Clarius machines to rheumatologists, and cover related software and training costs for doctors to use them, through 2026. The rheumatologists have the option to buy the devices and pay subscription fees to Clarius thereafter.
The devices, which have been distributed to 70 of the specialists so far, will be used to help diagnose psoriatic arthritis, an autoimmune condition that causes swollen joints, pain and redness and affects 300,000-plus Canadians.
Patients are typically diagnosed only after visiting a rheumatologist, then getting ultrasound images of inflamed areas at a hospital or clinic and returning for a follow-up visit with the doctor. That process can take several months, during which time patients can develop irreversible joint damage, chronic pain and disability, said Sahil Koppikar, a rheumatologist with Women’s College Hospital in Toronto.
“There has been a lot of evidence that making earlier diagnoses can improve long term outcomes for the patient and the system,” he said. And by using the Clarius devices, rheumatologists will instead be able to do a full diagnosis within minutes in one appointment.
Dr. Koppikar and Vancouver rheumatologist Dr. Mohammad Bardi designed the training program for the two companies. Early feedback has been “exceptionally” positive, and more than half the doctors in the program have used the devices regularly since starting in January, Dr. Koppikar said.
“Any place where we can bring imaging to the point of care, disrupt the legacy referral pattern, shorten the path to diagnosis, empower clinicians, expand the scope of practice and deliver a much better outcome to patients – we’re there,” said Ohad Arazi, the chief executive officer of Clarius.
An examination with the Clarius HD3 portable ultrasound machine in Vancouver on Dec. 15, 2023Marlin Olynyk /The Globe and Mail
The Clarius machines look like a cross between a smartphone and an electric razor and sell for US$3,600 apiece plus US$600 a year for access to the cloud software. That’s much lower than cart-based ultrasounds in hospitals than cost US$100,000 or more or specialty laptop sized machines that run tens of thousands of dollars each.
Clarius markets its machines online directly to a range of medical professionals as a pocket-sized personal tool they can take anywhere, like their stethoscope. It makes them at its Vancouver headquarters and has sold 28,000 to date, with revenue forecast to hit $40-million this year. Clarius was founded in 2014 by French-born entrepreneur Laurent Pelissier. Mr. Arazi, a medical device industry veteran, joined in 2022.
The deal with Novartis is one of a growing number of partnerships between drugmakers and makers of digital device and diagnostic tools that have helped expand use of their therapies.
Bayer AG bought AI imaging company Blackford Analysis Ltd. in 2023, and Japan’s Teijin Pharma partnered in 2021 virtual reality digital therapeutics company Jolly Good Inc. to help treat major depressive disorder. Danish drug giant Novo Nordisk AS joined in 2022 with French diagnostic technology company EchoSens to provide early detection of metabolic liver disease.
“Why is Novartis doing this?” said Mark Vineis, the president of the Swiss company’s Canadian branch. “The answer is simple. Where we can help the Canadian health care system, where we see we can help patients and clinicians, we have to.”
The partnership also brings potential economic benefits to the Swiss giant. To treat psoriatic arthritis, rheumatologists for decades have prescribed non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as Aspirin or disease-modifying antirheumatic treatments (DMARDs) such as methotrexate.
In the past two decades, a newer class of injectable antibody-based DMARDs have emerged that target and block specific inflammation-causing proteins, often working where older treatments don’t. Some of these newer drugs have been blockbusters: AbbVie Inc.’s Humira was the world’s top-selling drug before the COVID-19 pandemic, and Johnson & Johnson’s Stelara is also in the Top 10.
Novartis, meanwhile, received its first regulatory approvals for its antibody-based rheumatic treatment, Cosentyx, in 2015. It became a US$1-billion seller in its first full year of sales and was the company’s top-selling drug from 2019 until last year, when it generated US$5-billion in sales.
While earlier identification of psoriatic arthritis using the Clarius machines won’t automatically translate into sales for Novartis (there are 20 biologic treatments approved in Canada for the condition), it will likely expand prescriptions for the class of medicines.
That includes Cosentyx, which costs between $772.50 and $934 across Canada for a single dose – good for two weeks – and which is reimbursed by provincial and territorial health care systems. Dr. Koppikar said he prescribes the drug to about one in 25 psoriatic arthritis patients.
When questioned about the potential boost of Novartis drug sales and return on investment from the Clarius partnership, Mr. Vineis said his company is “not looking at this in that regard. We’re looking at this to fundamentally change the journey for patients to get diagnosed.
“If we have more effective diagnoses, we will do well by doing the right thing for patients, clinicians and the system.”