Digital therapeutics coupled with drugs has the potential to transform health care and change the way patients are treated, Anthony Costello, CEO of Medidata Solutions Inc., told BioWorld. Medidata recently strengthened its partnership with Click Therapeutics Inc., following an investment from its parent company Dassault Systèmes SE, which will see the two companies working to develop new therapies to improve the experience of patients.
The U.S. FDA granted breakthrough device designation for CT-155, a prescription digital therapeutic co-developed by Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH and Click Therapeutics Inc. to treat the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Designed as an adjunctive to pharmaceutical therapy for schizophrenia, among the most challenging mental health conditions to treat, the PDT is one of several products in the collaboration’s pipeline.
After flying high in 2022, digital therapeutics (DTx) companies crashed to Earth in 2023 and scrambled to identify a path to profitability, or at least continued viability.
A financial freefall left prescription digital therapeutic pioneer Pear Therapeutics Inc. cut into four pieces following a bankruptcy judge’s approval of the sale of its assets for a total of $6.05 million. Sleep-focused Nox Health Group took the biggest bite, acquiring the FDA-cleared Somryst PDT for $3.9 million. Other buyers included Harvest Bio LLC, Click Therapeutics Inc. and Welt Corp. Ltd. The total generated from the assets was woefully short of the company’s $32 million in debt.
