UK selected for digital medicine manufacturing site

The facility will produce sensors to monitor patients’ medication taking and response to therapies

US company Proteus Digital Health is to open its first international manufacturing site in the UK, creating 200 skilled jobs.

The site will produce Proteus' tiny ingestible wireless transmitter and sensor arrays, made of copper, magnesium and a small bit of silicon, which are integrated into a regular medicines. The sensors track physiological responses to the medication and transfers the data to a sensor patch worn on the patients abdomen. The patch then passes the data to a mobile or computer via Bluetooth.

The sensors are powered through a chemical reaction with stomach fluid; the signals they produce are uniquely coded, so the exact medication and dose is relayed.

Proteus will partner with Eastern Academic Health Science Network, The Northern Health Science Alliance, Oxford University, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust and Oxford Academic Health Science Network to assess the value of digital medicines in supporting patients’ medication taking behaviours and how their bodies respond to therapy.

Dr Hakim Yadi, chief executive of the Northern Health Science Alliance, said: “Our lives are becoming increasingly digital, a variety of sectors have already undergone fundamental changes through the introduction of innovative digital approaches. Healthcare is clearly the next sector to benefit from such changes.”