Pharma company Boehringer Ingelheim and Click Therapeutics announced an expanded partnership to develop and commercialize another prescription digital therapeutic for patients with schizophrenia.

The deal will net Click up to $460 million, plus tiered royalties. It builds on an earlier collaboration announced in 2020 that developed CT-155, an initial therapeutic for schizophrenia.

The companies said CT-155 has met its development milestones to date, and it's generated supportive evidence in clinical learning studies. They also noted that a pivotal registration study for the initial therapeutic is upcoming.

"Expanding our successful partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim enables our team to build on the experience and insights gathered with CT-155 and further expand the scope of our digital therapeutics platform," Austin Speier, Click's chief strategy officer, said in a statement. "This growing collaboration is a testament to the progress we have achieved so far working together and creates the inspiring opportunity to expand CT-155 into a seamless digital therapy suite that can deliver meaningful outcomes to people living with schizophrenia."

THE LARGER TREND

This isn't Click's first pharma partnership. It entered into a deal with Otsuka to develop and commercialize a prescription digital therapeutic for major depressive disorder in 2019. In early 2021, they launched a decentralized clinical trial assessing the therapeutic. 

During a panel discussion in February 2021, Click CEO David Klein said there was a lot of synergy between pharma companies like Boehringer Ingelheim and digital therapeutics developers.

"Click has true expertise in discovering and developing digital therapeutics, or really software as treatments. Boehringer Ingelheim has years and very deep expertise in CNS [Central Nervous System] and schizophrenia, and really has been historically one of the top not only developer of innovative medicines but also of commercializing innovative medicines globally," he said.

Last week, Click announced it had received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for a prescription digital therapeutic for episodic migraine. The company secured a $15 million loan from Silicon Valley Bank in the spring and raised a $52 million Series B funding round last year.