TruMedicines launches Kickstarter for Rx adherence app

SEATTLE — Big data and pharmaceutical tracking and authentication company TruMedicines on Tuesday launched a 40-day Kickstarter campaign for a smartphone app that promotes medication safety.

TruMedicines said the app will help stymy issues responsible for over a million deaths every year and billions of dollars in additional healthcare costs — counterfeit medication and adherence. Particularly with regard to counterfeit medication, TruMedicine’s David Prokop learned that people’s inability to figure out whether a drug is legitimate or not was a problem that needed fixing.

“When I learned about the epidemic of children dying due to counterfeit malaria pills, it became my mission to find a solution,” Prokop said.

The app requires a two-step authentication process — users first scan a QR code on the back of a TruMedicines box, and then take a photo of the pill, comparing it against the companies cloud database of medication. The process verifies where the drug was made, its expiration date and side effects. Designed to be accessible to people who are illiterate or have poor vision, the app provides information verbally and in large font in 52 languages.

Besides the issue of counterfeit medication is ensuring that patients take their medication properly and regularly — something that 90% of diabetes patients and 50% of cancer patients don’t fully do. So the TruMedicines app will send text message notifications to a patient’s family and doctor if a dose is skipped and will incentivize adherence through a rewards program.

“I’m thrilled that TruMedicines not only has the capability to dramatically reduce these avoidable deaths, but it also assists patients with compliance to ensure that medications are taken as prescribed,” Prokop said.

The Kickstarter campaign seeks to secure $150,000 to fund a April 2016 launch.