Why did you decide to join the Digital Therapeutics Consortium, and what were the key factors that led you to this decision?
There is no doubt that digital therapies represent one of the most disruptive healthcare innovations in recent times. True to our purpose of improving the lives of present and future generations, Boehringer Ingelheim decided to join this initiative from the very beginning to advance regulation and facilitate patient access to this type of therapy. An objective that can only be achieved through public-private collaboration among the various actors in the healthcare ecosystem. This purpose has been maintained by the DTx Consortium since its inception, and it is one that our company fully shares.
From the perspective of a promoting partner, what value do you gain by being part of the CDTx, and how has it benefited you so far?
Being part of the DTx Consortium gives us a unique opportunity to closely collaborate with different key stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem regarding digital therapies. It is undoubtedly a privileged position to understand the needs of the system, identify the challenges we must overcome, and thus develop solutions that facilitate and maximize patient access to these digital therapeutic innovations to improve their quality of life.
The company’s participation as a promoting partner in the CDTx reinforces our positioning as a leader in healthcare and demonstrates our commitment to improving access to innovative digital treatments.
Regarding digital therapies, what are the main challenges you face as a company?
The era of digital health has arrived and will significantly influence the delivery of healthcare worldwide. At Boehringer Ingelheim, we promote access to digital therapies and innovation homogeneously across the EU. The world of health is changing, and we understand the need for transformation by all key agents in the system to provide our full value, thinking about patients’ well-being. Digital technologies offer new ways to help patients, and we believe it is essential for systems to advance in this direction to enhance healthcare innovation with the development and commercialization of new healthcare solutions. Our digital health strategy aims to be a common framework to build a robust, effective, resilient, inclusive, and sustainable National Health System, thanks to the transformative power of digital technologies.
We discussed this during our participation for the second consecutive year in the digital health space at the 4YFN of MWC. Top experts in the field joined us, and together we debated the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in transforming the healthcare sector with two panel discussions: ‘How to prepare our healthcare systems to integrate AI’ and ‘The current impact of AI in healthcare.’ The debate highlighted the need to create and adapt new regulatory frameworks for AI in health, as well as collaboration to facilitate the evaluation and funding of digital solutions incorporating AI. All this, considering the patient’s perspective and how these changes have influenced their healthcare journey and interaction with the system.
In which therapeutic areas are your digital therapies positioned? What prompted you to choose these areas?
At Boehringer Ingelheim, innovation is integrated into our DNA. Our mission is to provide value through innovation. In digital health, we aim to establish ourselves as leaders in mental health and precision psychiatry. With nearly one billion people worldwide living with chronic and complex mental illness, our company is committed long-term to transforming the mental health landscape.
Taking this strategic approach, we aim to design treatments with the potential to address the biology of the brain with specific symptoms. We have an innovative pipeline and associated active ingredients that represent opportunities to make precision psychiatry a reality, thus addressing unmet medical needs in the field of mental health. We believe this approach goes beyond taking a specific drug and requires a collaborative, holistic, and patient-centered approach. That is why we work with various like-minded partners who share our vision.
Our goal is to provide comprehensive support through early disease detection, continuous psychological and social interventions, and digital therapies for people with chronic and complex mental health illnesses. Through our network of collaborators, we strive to improve daily practices in this area, sharing our collective findings. We hope to alleviate the burden faced by patients with mental health illnesses, as well as their caregivers, families, and society.
What opportunities and challenges do you foresee in the field of digital therapies for the coming years? How do you see their future in your therapeutic areas?
Digital therapies are the future, as they ensure patients receive evidence-based therapeutic interventions driven by software programs that serve to prevent, manage, alleviate, or treat a medical condition or disease. However, the main challenge is that access remains limited in most European countries. To ensure proper application, the development and commercialization process, including authorization, evaluation, pricing, and reimbursement, is subject to standards, considering there is also a lack of funding, regulatory harmonization, and scientific evidence among different EU members. In this sense, it is important to work together among different countries to improve access to these therapies. It is crucial to support data exchange and build infrastructure that maximizes the potential generated by these new technologies. Experts agree that the German model could be applicable to other countries. However, they also point out the need to change the current model so that innovation, driven by the solutions provided by start-ups, reaches patients.
Lastly, we would appreciate it if you could draft a brief inspirational quote that summarizes your vision on the potential of DTx.
«The future of digital therapies is so promising that it is key to unite efforts to achieve an impact beyond what we could accomplish separately. Collaboration among regulators, healthcare professionals, patients, and developers is essential to unlocking the best of digital innovation and health to improve patients’ quality of life.»
Additionally, it is necessary to create a common and sustainable business model that allows start-ups, as agents of the healthcare ecosystem, to develop their innovations and make them accessible to patients. In this regard, the involvement of healthcare professionals has been highlighted as essential to contribute to more personalized healthcare, as well as the involvement of the patients themselves.
Regarding the financing of these digital solutions, progress requires joint and unified collaboration from the public and private sectors, as well as the political community and other stakeholders such as healthcare professionals and managers, patient organizations, ICT professionals, etc. If we want to facilitate equitable access to innovation for all patients, it is necessary to create this common framework that streamlines the process of evaluating, adopting, and financing digital solutions.
In our therapeutic areas, especially in the field of mental health, we believe we have the opportunity to combine more traditional solutions (medications) with more innovative ones (digital therapies) to enhance the benefits of pharmacotherapy for these patients. Our focus is always on the patient, so we adopt a holistic approach that views treatment not just as taking medications but as a constant search for new therapies that improve their quality of life.
What initiatives are you undertaking to promote the development and adoption of digital therapies?
Our company uses innovative digital technologies throughout the entire pharmaceutical value chain, with the goal of transforming the lives of generations. This digitization objective is evident in the three areas we have in Spain that serve the entire corporation worldwide: the IT Hub, which optimizes technological and IT services; the Global Regulatory Affairs Services Center, which supports the registration and reevaluation processes of human and veterinary products; and the digital marketing services team, which supports the promotion of medicines. Additionally, we have a digital laboratory known as BIX at our headquarters in Germany, which acts as an innovative incubator where we test and develop innovative digital health products and solutions. In Spain, a team of more than 160 people comprises our R&D team.
If possible, could you share any specific digital therapy you are currently working on or have launched on the market? What features and benefits would you highlight?
One of the mental health therapies we are developing, in collaboration with Click Therapeutics, is CT-155, which combines multiple clinically validated therapeutic interventions to help patients with schizophrenia modify their behavior. This tool uses cognitive and neurobehavioral mechanisms to reduce cognitive deficits and social functioning impairments in patients with schizophrenia. This solution addresses the need to create a coherent and easily accessible therapy that specifically tackles the negative symptoms of schizophrenia, such as emotional withdrawal, lack of pleasure, social isolation, and disconnection from daily life. Additionally, it has the potential to be prescribed alongside medications currently in the pipeline to enhance the benefits of pharmacotherapy.
Similarly, we are developing, together with Bayoomed/Bayoonet, a behavior change intervention software called Airology, which can help COPD patients self-manage the adoption of clinically recommended attitudes to reduce dyspnea.
What do you consider to be the main barriers to the widespread adoption of digital therapies? What measures are you taking to overcome them?
As we have mentioned, while digital therapies offer great potential in healthcare, they also face significant challenges for widespread adoption. Some of the key barriers include complex regulation and approval, the need to establish viable reimbursement models, insufficient training of healthcare professionals, or lack of interoperability and standards.
In a world with increasing geopolitical and social uncertainties, the enormous potential of digital innovation represents an opportunity for effective transformation of the healthcare system and ensuring better care and experience for patients. In this sense, AI, for example, is playing an increasingly relevant role, allowing managers and healthcare professionals to make more informed and accurate decisions. Embracing disruptive technological innovations, changing mindsets, and adopting new business models is key, always putting patients at the center, with a strong commitment to quality, impact, and scientific and social progress.
To address this context, we are committed to working closely with regulatory authorities to ensure a balance between innovation and safety. We see more opportunities, which is why we are also investing in clinical research to support the efficacy of our digital therapies. Our goal is to pave the way for broader and more successful adoption of digital therapies, thus improving healthcare and the quality of life for patients.
Lastly, we would appreciate it if you could draft a brief inspirational quote that summarizes your vision on the potential of DTx.
«The future of disease care lies beyond traditional drugs. With digital therapies, we can explore a world of possibilities, based on new technologies and algorithms, that can provide us with faster, more efficient, and safer solutions to improve patients’ quality of life.»
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