TrialSpark announces collaboration with Limbix on conducting an end-to-end clinical trial on Limbix's digital therapeutic for adolescent depression

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Oct 22, 2019, 08:03 ET

NEW YORK, Oct. 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- TrialSpark, a tech-enabled drug development partner committed to improving the speed, quality, and innovation of clinical trials, and Limbix, a company improving mental healthcare through mobile apps and virtual reality (VR), have partnered to plan and execute a clinical trial for Limbix Spark – a digital therapeutic for adolescent depression.

Limbix Spark is a 5-week program that leverages mobile and VR technology. The program uses cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to treat adolescent depression by helping teens understand their depressive patterns, identify behaviors and activities that can positively affect their mood, and help reduce symptoms of depression. The program focuses on behavioral activation and guides teens through tasks that teach coping skills and mindfulness. Throughout the program, teens can also access additional resources that reinforce learning, even after program completion.

"Access to mental health treatment is a global problem and long waitlists often prevent patients from receiving adequate care. Digital therapeutics like Limbix Spark can improve access to, and outcomes of, mental healthcare by being a first line of defense before a patient sees a provider," said Jon Sockell, COO and co-founder of Limbix. "Working with TrialSpark to conduct a rigorous, community-based clinical trial will allow us to generate robust evidence that prescription digital therapeutics like Limbix Spark can be used for treatment."

TrialSpark executes clinical trials by partnering with doctors to create clinical trial sites within their existing practices and providing them with equipment, software and personnel support. TrialSpark's approach removes variability in operations at the site level by using a single technology platform, which cuts out the manual, time-intensive and costly tasks that delay clinical trial timelines. Additionally, by using anonymized, aggregated data to identify geographical clusters with a significant number of patients in a given indication, TrialSpark can recruit patients within the practice that would fit the enrollment criteria for the Limbix Spark clinical trial. With more sites in more locations, TrialSpark makes trials more accessible to patients, boosting enrollment rates, retention rates and diversity of patient participants.

"Digital therapeutics hold the potential to revolutionize mental healthcare. They can provide a new dimension of treatment for millions of people living with mental health conditions but without accessible and high-quality care," said Jeff Yuan, Head of Client Growth at TrialSpark. "TrialSpark is uniquely positioned to support clinical research of digital therapeutics by leveraging direct feedback from our network of community physicians; and the enablement of trials in real-world doctor's offices, often within traditionally underserved communities across diverse geographies. In addition to generating robust clinical evidence, we hope this collaboration extends the uptake of Limbix Spark among community practices particularly in areas where treatment gaps exist in mental health care."

About TrialSpark

TrialSpark's mission is to bring treatments to patients faster and more efficiently by reimagining the clinical trial process. TrialSpark has scaled a network of trial sites by partnering with doctors to create clinical trial sites within their existing practices. TrialSpark runs trials out of these doctors' practices using a roaming cohort of certified research coordinators, optimized by software, data and technology. Without variability in operations at the trial site level, TrialSpark cuts out the manual, time intensive and costly tasks that delay clinical trial timelines. By creating trial sites with doctors, TrialSpark unlocks the 98% of patients who have never been exposed to trials, boosting recruitment and enrollment rates and democratizing access.

About Limbix

Limbix's mission is to improve mental healthcare with accessible technology. Every day millions of people suffer from anxiety, pain, depression, trauma and addiction-related disorders. Despite the importance of improving outcomes, the tools and treatments needed to help patients are often inaccessible. Limbix aims to make these tools and treatments widely accessible to providers and their patients. Founded in 2016 and backed by Sequoia Capital and Storm Ventures, Limbix has offices in Palo Alto, Barcelona, and Los Angeles. For more information visit www.limbix.com.

Contact: Kevin Donovan, [email protected]

SOURCE TrialSpark