BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Akili Interactive Labs, Inc. ("Akili"), a company focused on developing clinically validated digital medicine for cognitive assessment and personalized treatment, announced today that it has raised $30.5 million in new equity investments to support the further clinical development of the company’s late-stage products and build a commercial infrastructure for a potential U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance and product launch in 2017. Several investors, including JAZZ Venture Partners, Canepa Advanced Healthcare Fund and PureTech Health participated in the financing.
Akili is currently conducting multiple clinical trials of its digital medicine platform across a variety of patient populations, including pediatric attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (in strategic collaboration with Autism Speaks), depression, Alzheimer’s disease (in strategic collaboration with Pfizer, Inc.) and traumatic brain injury.
"The need for safe and effective treatment of cognitive disorders, including ADHD and autism, continues to grow, and new modalities are needed for millions of patients. Particularly in pediatric populations, we see a significant demand for non-pharmacological options,” said Eddie Martucci, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Akili. "We’re excited that, with the support of our new and existing investors, we can continue to advance our adaptive software platform towards clinical validation and commercialization as a fundamentally new type of mainstream medicine.”
Akili develops mobile software-based treatments and monitors that are designed to function as action video games. Akili intends to develop its products in billion-dollar drug markets, starting in pediatric ADHD. Akili's lead product candidate, Project: EVO, is based on a platform technology exclusively licensed from the lab of Dr. Adam Gazzaley at the University of California, San Francisco, and was previously published as the cover story of the journal Nature. The proprietary platform targets cognitive interference processing while also adapting difficulty automatically in real-time, allowing individuals of wide-ranging ability levels to interact with the product in their homes without the need for physician calibration or additional hardware.
In a recent open-label pilot study of Project: EVO in pediatric ADHD, results demonstrated that Project: EVO improved attention, inhibition and working memory in children with ADHD. Based on these promising data, and the results of the earlier randomized, controlled study conducted by Gazzaley on the technology platform, Akili will initiate a large, randomized, controlled pivotal study to further validate the efficacy and safety of Project: EVO as a treatment for pediatric ADHD. Results from the pivotal study are expected in 2017, which, if successful, will potentially position Akili for a product launch by year-end 2017.
“We’re seeing the emergence of an entirely new category of non-pharmacological therapies, and Akili is leading the charge. We love their ability to target some of the most under-served patient populations and disrupt massive markets at the same time,” said John Spinale, former SVP of Social Games at Disney, and Partner at JAZZ Venture Partners.
ADHD is the most common neurobehavioral disorder of childhood. It is usually first diagnosed in childhood and often lasts into adulthood. ADHD impacts children’s performance in school, their ability to make and keep friends and their ability to function in society. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately one in 10 children is diagnosed with ADHD.
About Akili Interactive Labs
Akili is
building clinically validated cognitive therapeutics, assessments and
diagnostics that look and feel like high-quality video games. Leveraging
medical-grade science and consumer-grade software technology, the
company is seeking to produce a new type of healthcare product that is
both highly-effective and highly-engaging. The company was founded by PureTech
Health, together with leading neuroscientists and game designers.
Akili has garnered investment from Shire PLC and has strategic
partnerships with Pfizer Inc. and Autism Speaks.
About PureTech Health
PureTech
Health (PureTech Health plc, PRTC.L) is a cross-disciplinary
healthcare company, developing innovative products that could improve
the lives of billions of patients. PureTech has a pipeline of 12
operating companies, seven of which are "growth stage" with external
validation including strategic partnerships, outside funding,
proof-of-concept or peer review in prestigious scientific journals.
PureTech also has a pipeline of ten “concept phase” initiatives
resulting from review of more than 650 ideas annually. PureTech is
focused on areas including immune and inflammatory disorders, cognitive
and psychiatric disorders, diabetes and obesity, oncology and infectious
diseases, and has over 110 patents and patent applications. PureTech's
leading team and board, along with an advisory network of more than 50
expert founder-scientists and advisors across multiple disciplines,
gives PureTech access to potentially ground-breaking science and
technological innovation. For more information, visit www.puretechhealth.com and
connect with us on Twitter.
Forward Looking Statement
This press release contains
statements that are or may be forward-looking statements, including
statements that relate to the company's future prospects, developments
and strategies. The forward-looking statements are based on current
expectations and are subject to known and unknown risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance and
achievements to differ materially from current expectations, including,
but not limited to, those risks and uncertainties described in the risk
factors included in the regulatory filings for PureTech Health plc.
These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions regarding the
present and future business strategies of the company and the
environment in which it will operate in the future. Each forward-looking
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required by law and regulatory requirements, neither the company nor any
other party intends to update or revise these forward-looking
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