NEW YORK– Click Therapeutics, Inc. (“Click”), a leader in Digital Therapeutics™ as prescription medical treatments, today announced plans to accelerate its development initiatives in obesity and cardiometabolic disease through the acquisition of the assets of Better Therapeutics, Inc. The assets acquired include AspyreRx (BT-001), the first FDA-authorized prescription digital therapeutic for type 2 diabetes, and BT-004, which was recently granted FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for the treatment of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH). Other assets are BT-002, for the reduction of blood pressure in patients with hypertension, and BT-003, for the reduction of LDL cholesterol in patients with hyperlipidemia. This acquisition strengthens Click’s portfolio of innovative digital treatments for patients by immediately advancing its pipeline in obesity, diabetes and cardiometabolic diseases, complementing existing assets in psychiatry, CNS and pain disorders.
Click’s advancement into obesity and cardiometabolic disease is a culmination of progress over the past few years including the initiation of CT-181, a prescription digital therapeutic candidate for obesity. In addition, the company has done extensive research with patients, providers, and payers to evaluate the evolving needs in this rapidly growing therapeutic area. A key focus has been early discovery efforts to identify innovative features, such as smart titration and personalized side effect management, that can meaningfully enhance anti-obesity and cardiometabolic medication outcomes and value.
“There is immense potential in the cardiometabolic space for next-generation ‘smart’ therapeutics that enhance patient care and provider capabilities,” said Rich DeNunzio, Chief Commercial Officer of Click Therapeutics. “The current one-size-fits-all approach to obesity management can be improved with innovative digital therapeutics that tailor treatments to individual needs, leading to improved patient outcomes and the opportunity to create data-driven contracting models with payers. By collaborating with pharma, payers, providers and patients to layer these capabilities onto the latest drugs, we can transform obesity care and enable our partners to succeed in what is soon to be a highly competitive market.”
Obesity is a complex, chronic metabolic disease with both biological and neuro-behavioral drivers. Personalized treatment plans that consider the individual’s biology, psychology, and environment are crucial for effective management. Digital therapeutics can offer individual neuro-behavioral treatment, responsive to each patient, that delivers the comprehensive approach required to support long-term outcomes. By delivering such treatment alongside medication, drug-software combination treatments aim to improve clinical outcomes, enhance the patient experience and extend persistence on treatment compared to pharmacotherapy alone. When supported by appropriate clinical evidence, these benefits may be added directly to drug labels under FDA’s proposed new framework for demonstrating added clinical benefit due to the use of software with prescription drugs.1 In addition, data derived from real-world use of these smart medications can inform appropriate patient selection, support value-based contracting, and maximize value for all stakeholders.
Integration of Better Therapeutics’ intellectual property with Click’s development plans for obesity is expected to both accelerate development timelines and yield a best-in-class digital therapy for chronic weight management. The resulting digital therapeutic will be optimized for the treatment of obesity in combination with anti-obesity and diabetes medications such as GLP-1s, including current injectables and future oral formulations. It will leverage both AspyreRx’s clinically-validated digital behavioral therapy, developed over the course of 9 years, and Click’s AI-enabled platform, which combines advanced engagement techniques with proprietary digital mechanisms of action to treat disease. Similar development opportunities in type 2 diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and MASH will be enabled by the integration of Better’s assets with Click’s platform.
“Click can immediately strengthen AspyreRx by combining the latest engagement technology from our platform with Better’s therapeutic core. This allows us to efficiently deliver on the added clinical promise needed to support drug-software combination products with enhanced labels,” said Han Chiu, Chief Technology Officer of Click Therapeutics. “We expect the resulting best-of-both program will earn the long-term loyalty of patients, enabling superior outcomes and the generation of valuable real-world data insights for providers and payers.”
Click’s expansion into cardiometabolic disease follows successful in-house development efforts in the preventive treatment of migraine (CT-132), and multi-year collaborative development efforts in major depressive disorder (CT-152) with Otsuka, in schizophrenia (CT-155, CT-156) with Boehringer Ingelheim, and most recently, in opioid use disorder (CT-102) with Indivior.
