Life sciences firm launches mental health digital therapeutics platform

ATAI Life Sciences, which develops psychedelic and non-psychedelic compounds for various mental health indications, has launched its digital therapeutic platform IntroSpect Digital Therapeutics.

David Keene, who brings almost two decades of experience in tech- and healthcare-related fields, will serve as CEO and will be leading ATAI's efforts to bring digital therapeutics (DTx) and precision psychiatry to bear on the mental health epidemic.

Florian Brand, CEO of ATAI Life Sciences, said: "The ubiquity of mental illness mandates that we leverage emerging technologies to improve our ability to support patients wherever they may be. David's unique experience will be indispensable to helping us treat the individual rather than the disease."

Before coming to ATAI, Keene worked as a software engineer and served in leadership roles at a variety of online retail and gaming companies. After a cancer diagnosis, David felt compelled to found Everystory, which became Dthera Sciences in 2016. As chief technology officer, David led the development of DTHR-ALZ, an AI-enabled device for Alzheimer's disease with text messaging and complex emotional recognition capabilities based on cameras and facial landmark data. The FDA granted Breakthrough Device Designation for Alzheimer's and went from inception to production in 18 months.

Keene said: "Using the flexibility and power of digital technology allows us to be more capable than ever of meeting patients on their own terms. By using a variety of digital biomarkers, we stand to make treatments increasingly refined, effective, and – most importantly for mental healthcare – individualised.''

ATAI's DTx initiative will also pair the development of digital tools or devices with concurrent clinical research into certain compounds on the company's platform to enhance their therapeutic impact, with the goal of delivering personalised and scalable treatments to those who might not otherwise be able to access high quality care.

Srinivas Rao, chief scientific officer of ATAI Life Sciences, said: "With improved understanding of how individual biological phenotypes align with responses to certain interventions, clinicians will be better able to predict patients' recovery pathways.

"This, in turn, will cut down trial and error and shorten the time to therapeutic impact. And for those with difficult to treat mental illnesses, time is absolutely critical."