Japanese drugmaker Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma is collaborating with Nashville, USA-based BehaVR to develop digital therapeutics and wellness products to tackle the escalating global mental health concerns. The companies aim to jointly create the much-needed tools for treating social anxiety disorder (SAD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and major depressive disorder (MDD).

BehaVR will put its design and product development capabilities forward, while Sumitomo Dainippon possesses tremendous expertise in developing prescription therapeutics for patients with CNS-related disorders. The companies will also amalgamate their go-to-market and commercial capabilities to get the most out of this partnership.

The partnership stems from the belief that virtual reality has the power to transform access to care and revolutionize the next generation delivery of anxiety and depression treatment for patients. The companies are planning to proceed further with the Food and Drug Administration clearance for the three products.

“This continued investment in our collaboration with BehaVR demonstrates Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma’s commitment to meet patients’ unmet behavioral health needs by developing digital therapies that go beyond pharmacological interventions. There is inadequate access to high-quality mental health therapists in every country across the world. Our goal is to deliver high-impact digital VR therapies that are evidence-based to a broad global population of patients that continue to struggle with SAD, GAD, and MDD,” said Hiroyuki Baba, Senior Executive Officer for Sumitomo Dainippon.

“We are excited and proud to be pioneering the use of this fast-moving new medium of Virtual Reality to develop treatments for anxiety and depression-related mental illnesses. I could not be more pleased with this extension to our important partnership with BehaVR, who share our vision of the impact that these new products will make,” he added.

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