Leader in Digital Therapeutics Adds to Existing Insomnia and Anxiety Treatments to Address the Youth Mental Health Crisis
Big Health, the leading provider of non-drug digital treatments for mental health, has acquired Limbix, creators of the first, evidence-based digital therapeutic for teens and young adults with symptoms of depression. Since its founding in 2016, Limbix has raised $30 million through its Series A funding round and has built a research-based pipeline of adolescent products. As a result of the transaction, Big Health’s therapeutic portfolio expands to include SparkRx for adolescent depression and an adolescent anxiety product in development, alongside its flagship programs for patients aged 18+: Sleepio, for insomnia, and Daylight, for anxiety.
The pandemic exacerbated the youth mental health crisis, more than doubling depression and anxiety rates[1] — and the latest figures show up to 80% of young people don’t receive adequate treatment.[2] Working parents are shouldering the burden, as 71% report that issues with their child’s mental and emotional wellbeing made coping with workplace stresses more difficult.[3]
“We must continue to rise to the challenge of the mental health crisis – our acquisition of Limbix is a strategic milestone in advancing our mission to help millions back to good mental health,” Arun Gupta, CEO and Executive Chairman of Big Health, said. “Our portfolio of evidence-based, clinically validated digital treatments will enable a record number of adult and adolescent patients to get immediate access to safe and effective non-drug options,” he added.
SparkRx is designed to overcome common barriers to mental health care access, meeting young people on their smartphones, and is supported by trial data demonstrating a clinically meaningful reduction in depression symptoms.[4],[5],[6] The self-guided, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) based treatment for those aged 13+ teaches skills such as mood tracking, behavioral activation, problem solving and mindfulness. An interdisciplinary team, including experts in adolescent psychology, engineered SparkRx with the scientific rigor, clinical expertise and digital innovation needed to serve this gap in youth mental health care.
“Limbix and Big Health share significant alignment in our cultures and in our focus on delivering first-line digital therapeutics for a range of mental health conditions,” Ben Lewis, co-founder and CEO of Limbix, said. “As the industry leader, Big Health is a natural home for SparkRx, our upcoming product pipeline and our team to accelerate giving young people tools they can use themselves to meaningfully benefit from clinically-proven digital depression treatments,” he added.
The addition of SparkRx also enables the company to deliver on a critical customer need, as employers and health plans increasingly seek ways to provide effective treatments across a broader age range. In addition to health care providers, SparkRx will be made available to Big Health’s employer, public sector, health systems and health plan customers, and through the company’s strategic distribution agreements with pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), significantly increasing nationwide access. To date, more than 300,000 patients have enrolled in treatment through one of Big Health’s digital therapeutics.
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