Medicare Advantage insurer Clover Health is launching a subsidiary that will develop medications for elderly patients with chronic conditions.
The subsidiary, Clover Therapeutics, plans to use members' data to help inform the development of new therapies for age-related chronic diseases.
Clover Therapeutics signed an initial partnership with biotechnology company Genentech to study the genomic factors of such eye diseases as macular degeneration. The knowledge gained also will identify patients most likely to benefit from treatment.
"Clover Therapeutics was created to address the significant unmet needs in chronic progressive diseases in the Medicare population," said Cheng Zhang, head of Clover Therapeutics. "By partnering with our members to study the clinical and genetic drivers of ocular diseases, combined with Genentech's pioneering history of drug discovery and development in this area, we hope to improve the quality of life for seniors living with these conditions."