Vaaji Secures Pilot Award to Improve Safety of Transdermal Therapeutics in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease from the Penn AI and Technology Collaboratory funded by the National Institute of Aging

    LOS ANGELES, CA, February 21, 2024 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Vaaji, a pharmaceutical company specializing in smart therapeutics, is excited to announce its latest milestone—a pilot award from Penn Artificial Intelligence and Technology Collaboratory (PennAITech) at the University of Pennsylvania, part of the AI/Tech + Aging (A2) Collective funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA). The pilot award will be used to develop and evaluate a prototype smart patch in an exploratory clinical study of 50 healthy volunteers.

Vaaji's patented approach leverages innovative IoT and AI methodologies to provide real-time visibility and improve therapeutic patch safety. The company's platform intends to offer the first ever real-time monitoring of transdermal therapeutics to significantly improve Alzheimer's patient safety and enable healthy aging at home. Vaaji's technology seamlessly integrates with existing transdermal therapies, such as rivastigmine patches, to prevent rapid overdose toxicity and other risks from minor application errors. The platform identifies and orchestrates crucial "preventive actions" to avert potentially life-threatening consequences stemming from errors in patch use.

"Vaaji's smart patch represents a harmonious blend of advanced IoT capabilities and practical data science. We have engineered this technology with a clear path to market, ensuring it is not only groundbreaking but is also scalable and deployable in real-world settings," said Patrick Mercier, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and co-Director of the Center for Wearable Sensors at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). Prof. Mercier serves as the Chief Technical Advisor at Vaaji and has deep expertise in the design of energy-efficient microsystems for biomedical applications.

"This pilot award is a significant milestone, and the results of this exploratory clinical study will significantly inform our clinical and regulatory strategy. We believe that this project will pave the way for a future where advanced healthcare solutions are accessible and effective in supporting healthy aging at home, " said William Z Potter MD PhD., co-Principal Investigator and Chief Scientific Advisor of Vaaji. "We are excited about our collaboration with PennAITech and to successfully execute the study."

"Vaaji is grateful for the support of the A2 Collective, Penn, and the NIA. With the number of Americans aged 65 and older projected to reach 95 million by 2060, the urgency for technologies like Vaaji's smart patches, which enable safe and independent aging, is more critical than ever. We are well-positioned to assemble current advances in IoT, AI, and Data to bring those benefits to patient safety and care," said Tushar Patil, co-founder of Vaaji.

To learn more about Vaaji's groundbreaking approach to transdermal therapeutic patch monitoring and safety, visit www.vaaji.io.

Disclaimer: The project described is supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number 1-P30-AG-073105-01. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

About The AI/Tech + Aging (A2) Collective: The pilot awards competition will award $40 million over 5 years to promising pilot projects that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and other transformative technologies to support healthy aging and persons living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD) and their caregivers. The A2 Collective represents the Artificial Intelligence and Technology Collaboratories for Aging Research (AITC) program, which is funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The AITC program is dedicated to leveraging AI and emerging technologies to help Americans live longer, healthier lives.

About Vaaji: Vaaji is a pioneering pharmaceutical and digital health company dedicated to transforming the safety and well-being of patients using transdermal therapeutic patches. Its core innovation is to develop individually trackable, smart transdermal therapeutics that allow detection of patch application errors in real-time. Vaaji's patented patient-centric platform technology leverages an IoT-based real-time monitoring and intervention system to ensure the best possible care for transdermal therapeutics users.

To discover more about how Vaaji is revolutionizing transdermal therapy safety, visit vaaji.io. Join us in our journey towards creating a safer, healthier future for our aging population.

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