On Friday, Click Therapeutics announced that it raised $52 million of fresh funding, which it will use to accelerate the development and commercialization of its lengthy list of tech-based prescription treatments, as well as scale up the machine learning-based platform where all of its digital therapeutics are built. The NYC-based startup also appears to be in the midst of a hiring spree, with dozens of open tech positions available now.
Founded in 2012, Click has developed a pipeline of digital therapeutics that spans from psychiatry to chronic pain to autoimmune disorders. Its first product, Clickotine, is a mobile software program that helps users quit smoking. This is the only non-prescription therapeutic in the startup’s portfolio, and therefore doesn’t require FDA clearance before commercialization. However, in clinical trials, eight weeks of using Clickotine was shown to have helped 35 percent of users abstain from smoking for at least 30 days.
Several more of Click’s app-based therapeutics — all of which require a prescription and eventual FDA clearance — are undergoing clinical trials as we speak. One of them is being developed through a partnership with Tokyo pharmaceutical company Otsuka, and it is designed to treat major depressive disorder. Others are working to treat migraines, schizophrenia, insomnia, acute coronary syndrome and overactive bladder.
Going forward, Click CEO and co-founder David Benshoof Klein said in a statement that this latest round of funding is “an important milestone” for the startup to continue its work. The Series B was co-led by H.I.G. BioHealth Partners and Accelmed Partners II, with participation from long-time investor Sanofi Ventures — the VC arm of the French big pharma company by the same name — and a handful of existing backers.
In addition to the funding, Dr. Uri Geiger, the founder of Accelmed, and Alex Zisson, a managing director at H.I.G. BioHealth, will be joining Click’s board of directors.
“Digital therapeutics hold the promise to change the very paradigm of healthcare,” Zisson said in a statement. “Click has one of the very best platforms in this field, and we are excited to help the company improve patient outcomes and potential lower healthcare costs.”
