Dive Brief:

• Otsuka’s digital health subsidiary has launched its first product, an app-based treatment for major depressive disorder. 
• The app, called Rejoyn, is available only by prescription and is intended to be used in addition to medications. It consists of a six-week program with cognitive behavioral therapy-based video lessons and exercises for identifying emotions. Otsuka announced the launch on Tuesday.
• Sanket Shah, president of the Japanese pharmaceutical company’s new Otsuka Precision Health subsidiary, said the treatment was priced at $50 on a cash-pay basis, with the goal of making it accessible. “This is, to be honest, not going to make money,” Shah said in an interview. “We have to put the investment into this to build this out because we do believe in the [digital therapeutics] model and digital solutions and using technology to really help patients.” 

Dive Insight:

Rejoyn was developed by Otsuka and Click Therapeutics, a New York-based company that specializes in prescription software treatments.

The app is intended to reduce depression symptoms by having users identify and remember emotions displayed in a series of faces, which Otsuka claims can target neural connections needed to process emotions. 

Otsuka received 510(k) clearance for Rejoyn in March from the Food and Drug Administration. In a six-week, randomized, pivotal trial comparing Rejoyn to a sham app, patients who used Rejoyn saw a statistically significant improvement in the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale, a 10-item assessment widely used by clinicians to measure the severity of depression. 

After a patient is prescribed the program, digital pharmacy BlinkRx sends them a code to download Rejoyn from an app store. 

Shah said Otsuka will sell Rejoyn for $50 for a limited time, similar to copays for branded drugs.  He said it will be priced for insurers at $200.

Rakesh Jain, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Texas Tech University School of Medicine, Permian Basin, said in an interview that one of his patients is using the app and several others are onboarding. He sees it as an option for people who aren’t doing well on their current treatment regimen.

“I find myself wanting more to offer my patients,” said Jain, who is a paid consultant for Otsuka. He added that he was pleasantly surprised by the price, and that his patients so far have accessed it directly through cash pay. 

Otsuka Digital Health plans to offer other app-based programs in a field where many other companies have struggled. Pear Therapeutics, one of the first companies to receive FDA clearance for an app-based treatment, filed for bankruptcy last year, and Akili Interactive, which makes a video game for ADHD, sold for $34 million in May. Both faced challenges in gaining insurance coverage.

Shah expects insurance companies to cover the digital treatment given its safety and efficacy. 

“We were committed to … making this accessible for all,” Shah said. “That continues to be what we’re going to work toward regardless of insurance.”