Digital therapeutics (DTx) market segment is still developing, striving to deliver clinically proven and medically approved software solutions in various disease areas and to integrate them in the traditional healthcare.

Strategic partnerships play a key role in facilitating the acceptance, integration and growth of DTx solutions as well as increasing the awareness about their potential benefits.

According to Allis, the number of closed partnerships with DTx solution providers has surpassed 400 to date, and this trend has seen a consistent increase from 2014 to 2020, with a rise from a single partnership deal to 90 partnership deals.

Despite facing bankruptcies and layoffs within some companies developing DTx solutions, the first half of 2023 has seen also seen considerable number of partnerships being forged with DTx solution providers, totalling around 40.

This demonstrates a growing interest among the healthcare stakeholders, including health plans, pharma, healthcare and research organizations among others, for DTx collaborations.

Recently NuvoAir and Marpai collaborated to offer NuvoAir’s respiratory and heart failure virtual care services to the members of self-funded employer health plans.

Click Therapeutics-Boehringer Ingelheim for schizophrenia, Dawn Health-Novartis for chronic conditions, Welldoc-Astellas Pharma for cardiometabolic conditions, and Biofourmis-Chugai for endometriosis are just a few examples of DTx-pharma collaborations happened in the last six months.

Some DTx providers have also succeeded closing partnerships with hospitals, such as Ampersand Health and Barts Health, Propeller Health and UC Davis Health and Rocket VR and Massachusetts General Hospital.

As the list of partners for DTx solution providers continues to grow, four types of partnership ecosystems also started to be formed in the market segment.

1. Pharma Industry Ecosystems: DTx solution providers, like DarioHealth with Sanofi, One Drop with Bayer, Twill with Biogen, have already started targetting pharmaceutical partners. DTx companies with a pharma industry partnership ecosystem gets access to pharma’s decades of knowledge on different diseases, support for clinical trials and evidence generation, fundings, and sales resources. Because of the time consuming and resource-depleting the reimbursement pathways in different markets, increasing number of DTx solution providers prefer leveraging pharmaceutical partnerships also in their market entry strategies.
2. Commercial Ecosystems: The digital therapeutics competitors thrive on robust commercial ecosystems, like in other digital health market segments, that facilitate the distribution of the solutions and effectively reach a wider user base. Not only the health plans, digital health network platforms, hospitals, PBMs or large employer clients, but even telemedicine partners like DarioHealth’s partnership with Amwell, support increasing the adoption rates of DTx solutions.
3. Research Ecosystems: Clinical evidence generation, efficacy, and safety of the DTx solutions are very crucial not only for the regulatory approvals and reimbursement but also closing partnerships with health plans or increasing the adoption among the HCPs/patients. Therefore, DTx companies have also been putting effort in collaborating with the universities and hospitals to enrich their research ecosystems. Mindmaze’s partnership with the University of Auckland, and Biofourmis’ partnership with Vanderbilt University are some examples from companies who are building research ecosystems.
4. Service Expansion Ecosystems: Expanding service offerings through partnerships with other digital health companies, technology and service providers have gotten into the radar of the DTx providers in recent years. Twill’s and Feel Therapeutic’s partnership with Your.Coach in 2022, or Sword Health’s partnership with Onduo in 2022 or DarioHealth’s partnership with telemedicine provider MediOrbis in 2020, are altogether to incorporate new services and capabilities, facilitate user acquisition and retention.

Over the years, the digital therapeutics (DTx) industry has witnessed a steady rise in partnership deals and forged numerous collaborations with various healthcare stakeholders. As a result, DTx players are now establishing their own ecosystems, consisting of four key types: pharma industry, commercial, research, and service expansion. These ecosystems collectively contribute to the development, integration, and acceptance of the DTx solutions in traditional healthcare delivery, and eventually boost the growth of DTx business.
 

Visit DTx Channel on Allis to find more on the business opportunities in digital therapeutics market or request a demo from Allis team!