Akili Interactive Lab’s video game digital therapeutic Project EVO
Akili Interactive Labs, a digital therapeutics company that’s developed a video game to improve attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, has closed a $55 million Series C round financing. The fresh capital will be used to help advance the development of Akili’s pipeline of prescription digital treatment candidates, including the ADHD indication AKL-T01, meet regulatory milestones and in preparation for commercial launch, according to a company news release. It also comes as Akili readies its lead digital therapeutic candidate for FDA submission.
Temasek led the Series C and another new investor took part in the round — Baillie Gifford. Returning investors that also participated include Amgen Ventures, M Ventures (the CVC fund of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany), JAZZ Venture Partners, Canepa Advanced Healthcare Fund, and Brooklands Capital Strategies.
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Last year the company made a series of hires, including the addition of Cubist Pharmaceuticals veteran Rob Perez as executive chairman. Perez had previously worked as a commercial adviser at Akili. The business also added executive advisers Glenn Entis, a former DreamWorks Interactive CEO, and Noah Falstein, a former Google Chief Game Designer.
In addition to ADHD, Akili’s pipeline includes indications for depression, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and the use of its gaming platform to detect Alzheimer’s disease earlier as part of a partnership with Pfizer.
Although gaming technologies sometimes trigger criticism for being more flash than substance, Akili has made clinical validation part of its pathway to commercialization. At the Health Datapalooza conference last spring, Akili CEO and Cofounder Eddie Martucci drew parallels between its work and that of drugmakers and talked about how the pharma industry has helped its business.
“The label [for its lead digital therapeutic] will read ‘for the treatment of ADHD’ — not disease management, not patient engagement, but a direct, therapeutically active software platform.”
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Akili, which was founded by Pure Tech, is one of a growing number of companies that refer to their products as digital therapeutic developers, including WellDoc, Omada Health, and Pear Therapeutics.
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