Big Health expands into adolescent mental health through acquisition of Limbix

Digital therapy leader adds to existing treatments for insomnia and anxiety to address youth mental health crisis

SAN FRANCISCO, July 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Great Health, the leading provider of digital non-drug treatments for mental health, has acquired Limbix, creators of the first evidence-based digital therapy for adolescents and young adults with symptoms of depression. Since its foundation in 2016, Limbix has grown $30 million through its Series A funding round and has built a research-driven pipeline of teen products. As a result of the transaction, Big Health’s therapeutic portfolio expands to include SparkRx for adolescent depression and a product for adolescent anxiety in development, along with its flagship programs for patients over the age of 18: Sleepiusfor insomnia, e Daylightfor anxiety.

The pandemic has exacerbated the youth mental health crisis, more than doubling rates of depression and anxiety^[1] and the latest figures show that up to 80% of young people are not receiving adequate care.^[2] Working parents are shouldering the burden, as 71% report that issues with their child’s mental and emotional well-being have made it more difficult to cope with workplace stress.^[3]

“As we continue to address the challenge of the mental health crisis, our acquisition of Limbix is ​​a strategic milestone in advancing our mission to help millions of people return to good mental health,” Arun Gupta, CEO and executive chairman of Big Health, said. “Our portfolio of evidence-based and clinically validated digital treatments will enable a record number of adult and adolescent patients to gain immediate access to safe and effective non-drug options,” he added.

SparkRx is designed to overcome common barriers to accessing mental health care by meeting young people on their smartphones and is supported by experimental data demonstrating a clinically significant reduction in depressive symptoms.^[4],[5],[6] Self-guided treatment based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for people over the age of 13 teaches skills such as mood monitoring, behavioral activation, problem solving and mindfulness. An interdisciplinary team, including experts in adolescent psychology, designed SparkRx with the scientific rigor, clinical expertise and digital innovation needed to fill this gap in youth mental health care.

“Limbix and Big Health share a significant alignment in our cultures and in our focus on delivering digital first-line therapies for a range of mental health conditions,” Ben Lewis, co-founder and CEO of Limbix, said. “As an industry leader, Big Health is a natural home for SparkRx, our pipeline of upcoming products, and our team to accelerate providing young people with tools they can use on their own to significantly benefit from treatments for clinically proven digital depression,” he added.

The addition of SparkRx also allows the company to meet a critical customer need as employers and health plans increasingly seek ways to provide effective treatments to a wider age group. In addition to healthcare providers, SparkRx will be made available to employer, public sector, Big Health health systems and health plans, 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 signed up for treatment through one of Big Health’s digital therapies.

About Great Health

Big Health’s mission is to help millions of people return to good mental health by providing safe and effective non-drug treatments for the most common mental health conditions, including insomnia, anxiety and depression. Designed by leading clinical experts, Big Health’s digital therapies expand access to gold standard care, including behavioral medicine, and are backed by more than 80 industry-leading research and 15 randomized controlled trials. By seamlessly integrating across the entire care journey, from member engagement to billing through pharmacy benefit managers, Big Health simplifies adoption for employers, payors and patients by providing an inclusive, scalable and cost-effective approach without serious side effects . For more information please visit www.bighealth.com or follow Big Health on LinkedIn and Chirping.

In accordance with the FDA’s current enforcement discretion policy for digital health devices for psychiatric disorders, for patients followed up and diagnosed with insomnia disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, or depression by a physician, Sleepio , Daylight, and SparkRx may be made available in addition to their usual medical care for insomnia disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, or depression, respectively. Sleepio, Daylight and SparkRx are not substitutes for a doctor’s care or a patient’s medications. Sleepio, Daylight and SparkRx have not been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for these indications.

^[1] Racine N, McArthur BA, Cooke JE, Eirich R, Zhu J, Madigan S. Global prevalence of depressive and anxious symptoms in children and adolescents during COVID-19: a meta-analysis. JAMA Pediatr. 2021;175(11):11421150. doi:10.1001/jamapediatria.2021.2482

^[2] Beth A. Stroul, MEd, Gary M. BlauPhD e Justine LarsonMD, The Evolving Care System Approach to Children, Youth, and Young Adults with Mental Health Conditions and Their Families, The Institute for Innovation and Implementation, School of Social Work, University of Maryland2021.

^[3] Marti Bledsoe Post, The Great Collide: The Impact of Children’s Mental Health on the Workplace, On Our Sleeves, Spring 2021.

^[4] Kulikov VN, Crosthwaite PC, Hall SA, Flannery JE, Strauss GS, Vierra EM, Koepsell XL, Lake JI, Padmanabhan A. A mobile CBT-based intervention as adjunctive treatment for adolescents with symptoms of depression: a virtual randomized controlled feasibility study . Front digit health. 2023 May 23;5:1062471. doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2023.1062471. PMID: 37323125; PMC ID: PMC10262850.

^[5] Lake et al., Feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of a digital intervention for adolescent depression. Under review.

^[6] Padmanabhan et al., Preliminary efficacy of a digital intervention for adolescent depression: a randomized clinical trial. Under review.

SOURCE Great health