22 July 2019 - The key to treating any disease is being assured that patients are taking their medicines. This is not usually a problem when someone is suffering from an acute condition such as migraine when the patients’ motivation to take their prescription is pretty high. 

However, it can be a challenge when the condition is chronic and asymptomatic, for example in treating high cholesterol with statins. In such a case, it is easy for patients to forget, or even cease, taking their Lipitor as they don’t sense any benefit or feel any different.

This can particularly be a problem with drugs that treat neurological diseases like depression or schizophrenia. These are conditions where oftentimes patients start feeling better and stop taking their meds, only to crash when the drug’s effect wears off. However, FDA approval of Otsuka’s “Abilify MyCite” brought hope that new technology could greatly improve drug adherence for schizophrenics. Abilify MyCite is known as a “smart pill” in which a well-established drug to treat schizophrenia, Abilify (generic name: aripiprazole), has been modified by embedding a sensor so that it is easy to track patient compliance.

Abilify MyCite is not cheap. Its list price is roughly $1,650 compared to generic Abilify aripiprazole which is $20.

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