Otsuka Pharmaceuticals

The new smartphone app, Rejoyn, will deliver treatment to patients taking antidepressant medication aimed at enhancing cognitive control of emotion.

Also: Blood glucose monitoring could be coming to next-gen consumer smartwatches; new incubator looking for disruptive health tech startups.

The news comes months after reports that the company had furloughed staff and couldn't secure additional funding for its-ingestible sensor business.

The industry is better off viewing the the floundering deals between Onduo and Sanofi, Proteus and Otsuka, and Pear and Sandoz as a learning opportunity.

Otsuka intends to invest more than $300 million in an FDA-cleared software app that will apply cognitive therapy principals either with or without prescription drugs. 

As the Abilify MyCite platform nears a full rollout, the companies said they are looking forward to employing the technology toward additional mental health therapies.

Stakeholders across healthcare are beginning to weigh the benefits and challenges digital therapeutics could bring to their businesses, and pharma is no exception.

It’s still the early days, but the FDA’s approval of Proteus Digital Health and Otsuka Pharmaceuticals’ Abilify MyCite has changed the discussion of digital technology in healthcare.

After years of using its digital health feedback system in clinical trials and studies, Proteus Digital Health, and partner Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, are poised to launch the first mass market drug to incorporate Proteus's ingestible sensor.