Less than a year after its last financing, Click Therapeutics raised $52 million to develop its portfolio of software-based treatments. The New York-based startup recently raised a series B round led by H.I.G. BioHealth Partners and Accelmed Partners II. Sanofi, an early investor in the company, also participated in its most recent fundraise.
Click plans to use the funds to develop and commercialize more of its digital therapeutics, and build out its platform to predict the optimal course of treatment for each patient.
The company’s CEO and co-founder, David Benshoof Klein, described Click’s series B round as an “important milestone.”
“We are excited to welcome our new investors and deepen our relationships with existing investors, all of whom share our vision of a new healthcare landscape in which prescription digital therapeutics play a prominent role alongside traditional pharmacological treatments,” he said in a news release.
So far, the startup has brought one app-based treatment to market: a digital smoking cessation program it developed with PBM Magellan Health.
It’s also launching a pivotal trial of a digital therapeutic for depression that it is developing in conjunction with Otsuka Pharmaceutical. The companies are enrolling 540 people for the 12-week trial, to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the digital therapeutics in adults who are taking antidepressants.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Click has other projects in its pipeline that are in the earlier stages. Last year, it struck a $500 million partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim to develop a digital therapeutic for schizophrenia. It’s also working on treatments for chronic pain, cardiometabolic and autoimmune disorders.
As part of the funding round, H.I.G. BioHealth Managing Director Alex Zison and Accelmed Managing Partner Uri Geiger will join Click’s board of directors.
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