Digital health company Berkshire Biomedical, LLC is on a mission to revolutionize personalized medication delivery through its concentration on virtual care.
With 20 to 30 percent of prescriptions never getting filled and approximately 50 percent of medications for chronic disease not taken as directed, it may come as no surprise that non-adherence accounts for at least 10 percent of hospitalizations, according to Annals of Internal Medicine.
On top of that, more than 125,000 untimely deaths and avoidable healthcare spending in the range of $100 to $300 billion are caused by non-adherence.
Led by serial entrepreneur Rudy Mazzocchi, Berkshire is currently developing a Computerized Oral Prescription Administration (COPA) System to solve these issues. COPA is a virtual care and prescription drug management system that’s contained in a small handheld device.
“There is a lot of smart technology now in healthcare but no one has the ability to identify and dispense medication to the Intended User in a virtual care platform,” Mazzocchi told CEO CFO Magazine.
Photo: Berkshire Biomedical
Berkshire’s tech is able to provide precise, timely, and consistent deliveries of prescribed liquid oral medications backed by real-time usage tracking and data storage. The tech also notifies the intended user of when they need to take a dosage, making sure they adhere to the doctor’s orders.
COPA responds to physician driven dosage changes through a cellular connection and provides data storage and analytics creation to physicians, pharmacists, and caregivers.
“We believe that the COPA System, with its innovative approach to personalized prescription and drug delivery to the Intended User can be a leading product in this transformation to virtual care,” Mazzocchi said.
With a May 2020 study suggesting that “approximately $250 billion of annual health spend could be virtualized” and the ongoing pandemic creating an increased need for virtual care, this product is being developed at an especially opportune time.
Berkshire Biomedical was originally created when Thomas Rouse’s long-term recovery failed after he underwent three spine surgeries in 2016, Mazzocchi told CEO CFO Magazine.
“His pain became unmanageable as he struggled to properly self-administer his medications. He learned quickly that he had no way to really provide accurate adherence information back to his doctor and he became extremely frustrated by the delayed recovery,” Mazzocchi said.
From that experience, Rouse decided to launch Berkshire with Susan Owen and create the COPA system. Now, he serves as the company’s founder and chairman.
Mazzocchi told CEO CFO Magazine that Berkshire is making plans for full commercialization in Q3 of 2021 and to continue working on scaling commercial manufacturing for the COPA System launch.
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