" class="no-js "lang="en-US"> Aculys Pharma and Four H Collaborate to Study Sleep Disorders
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Aculys Pharma and Four H Initiate Research Collaboration using Wearable Devices to Study Sleep Disorders in Japan

Aculys Pharma, a company focused on the development and commercialization of new innovative drugs in the fields of neurology and psychiatry, and Four H, a Japan-based company specializing in health technology, announced an exploratory research collaboration using wearable devices to help patients with narcolepsy and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) associated with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS).

In its quest to establish a new pharmaceutical model, Aculys is promoting DX (digital transformation) in clinical trials and medicine. In this collaborative exploratory study to be launched with Four H, Aculys will collect trial participants’ subjective assessments of their sleep as well as data on their sleep, activities, and heart rate acquired from wearable devices to be worn each night during the clinical trial period. These data will be analyzed in conjunction with other data to be obtained in the clinical trial with the goal of identifying sleep-related digital biomarkers.

This exploratory research program will be characterized by the following three points:

  1. Objective understanding of narcolepsy, OSAS, and its characteristics (sleep condition, daytime sleepiness, etc.)
  2. Analysis using AI and other methods to collate the subjective assessment by patients and objective assessment obtained by the wearable device
  3. Development of appropriate and reliable digital biomarkers for future clinical trials and clinical setting

Through the above approach, which is unprecedented in conventional clinical trials for sleep-related diseases, the following outcomes are expected: objective understanding of patients’ sleep status, analysis of daytime sleepiness patterns, extraction of sleep characteristics, and daytime activity data through comparison with people without symptoms, and detection of predictive signs of the onset of daytime sleepiness.

Sleep disorders are difficult to objectively identify, and largely rely on the memory and self-reporting of patients themselves, causing a range of challenges in diagnoses and appropriate treatment. This exploratory research will allow a further accurate understanding of each patient’s sleep and lifestyle patterns, which had been difficult to measure previously. Over the long term, we collectively plan to build a comprehensive sleep ecosystem for patients, including: digital biomarkers which can be used to predict health risks; personalized data to improve patient quality of life and productivity; and quality disease management programs that patients can utilize at home.

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