Click Therapeutics and Boehringer Ingelheim partner to develop and market a digital therapeutic to treat schizophrenia

by

Boehringer Ingel­heim, Click Ther­a­peu­tics ink $500M+ dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics devel­op­ment, com­mer­cial­iza­tion deal (Mobi­Health­News):

Inter­na­tion­al phar­ma Boehringer Ingel­heim and pre­scrip­tion dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics com­pa­ny Click Ther­a­peu­tics have inked a $500 mil­lion-plus deal to joint­ly devel­op and com­mer­cial­ize a dig­i­tal treat­ment for patients with schizophrenia.

The treat­ment, referred to as CT-155, will be a mobile app built on Click­’s pro­pri­etary tech plat­form, the com­pa­nies said … With this big tick­et deal, Boehringer Ingel­heim becomes the lat­est major phar­ma com­pa­ny to bet big on what many in the indus­try still con­sid­er to be an unex­plored treat­ment modal­i­ty. Of note, the com­pa­ny said in the announce­ment that its view­ing the dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic as “a mean­ing­ful new treat­ment cat­e­go­ry” for neu­ropsy­chi­atric dis­or­ders such as schiz­o­phre­nia. Either alone or with a drug, they wrote, this type of approach could poten­tial­ly improve access to the kind of tai­lored psy­choso­cial inter­ven­tions that are rec­om­mend­ed in treat­ment guide­lines for schiz­o­phre­nia, but infre­quent­ly delivered.

The Announcement:

Boehringer Ingel­heim and Click Ther­a­peu­tics Enter into Col­lab­o­ra­tion to Devel­op and Com­mer­cial­ize CT-155, a Nov­el Pre­scrip­tion Dig­i­tal Ther­a­peu­tic to Aid in the Treat­ment of Schiz­o­phre­nia (press release):

Boehringer Ingel­heim and Click Ther­a­peu­tics today announced they have entered into a col­lab­o­ra­tion for the devel­op­ment and com­mer­cial­iza­tion of a pre­scrip­tion-based dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic. It will uti­lize cog­ni­tive and neu­robe­hav­ioral mech­a­nisms deliv­ered through Click’s pro­pri­etary engage­ment plat­form with the goal of reduc­ing cog­ni­tive deficits and impaired social func­tion­ing in patients with schiz­o­phre­nia. Togeth­er the two com­pa­nies will join their exper­tise to devel­op a nov­el mobile appli­ca­tion, CT-155, which com­bines mul­ti­ple clin­i­cal­ly val­i­dat­ed ther­a­peu­tic inter­ven­tions to help schiz­o­phre­nia patients mod­i­fy their behav­ior to achieve pos­i­tive clin­i­cal out­comes alone and in com­bi­na­tion with phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal ther­a­py options … “CT-155 is an excel­lent addi­tion to our CNS pipeline port­fo­lio; it reflects our patient cen­tric approach and trans­lates evi­dence show­ing how behav­ioral mod­i­fi­ca­tion can induce pos­i­tive neu­ronal changes into a wide­ly acces­si­ble solu­tion. Fur­ther it has the poten­tial to be pre­scribed togeth­er with Boehringer Ingelheim’s schiz­o­phre­nia pipeline com­pounds pos­si­bly enhanc­ing the ben­e­fit of phar­ma­cother­a­py for patients,” added Cor­nelia Dorner-Ciossek, Ph.D., Direc­tor CNS Dis­eases Research at Boehringer Ingelheim.

… Under the terms of the part­ner­ship agree­ment, Click Ther­a­peu­tics will be pri­mar­i­ly respon­si­ble for research and devel­op­ment activ­i­ties, and will sup­port Boehringer Ingel­heim as it under­takes world­wide com­mer­cial­iza­tion activ­i­ties. Click Ther­a­peu­tics will receive under the terms of the part­ner­ship agree­ment an upfront pay­ment and fund­ing for research and devel­op­ment activ­i­ties as well as clin­i­cal, reg­u­la­to­ry and com­mer­cial mile­stones rep­re­sent­ing a total deal val­ue of over USD 500 mil­lion. Addi­tion­al­ly, Click Ther­a­peu­tics will receive tiered roy­al­ties on annu­al net sales of CT-155 worldwide.

The Announcement in Context: