Pfizer has inked a deal with the Swedish digital therapeutic platform developer Alex Therapeutics to help study and launch a smartphone app for combating nicotine addiction.
Prior to commercialization, the Big Pharma’s Germany-based division will first help with clinical validation of the smoking cessation program, dubbed Elia. Market rollout will start within the country, according to a statement.
The initial goal is to develop a prescription app that would be reimbursable under Germany’s digital healthcare regulations. Alex’s therapeutic platform relies on the evidence-based psychology methods that have been pursued by other app models, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, behavioral economics and motivational interviewing.
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The company’s programs also incorporate artificial intelligence-powered algorithms to craft personalized recommendations to help users identify the underlying triggers that lead them to smoke and smoking's short- and long-term health effects.
The commercialization agreement follows years of collaboration between the two companies on smoking and nicotine addiction during the app’s development.
During May 2021’s World No Tobacco Day, Alex worked with Pfizer Sweden to highlight the progress made with its quit-smoking platform, which as of last year had about 100,000 registered users internationally, according to the company.
“We have a dream of helping a billion people around the world,” Alex CEO John Drakenberg Renander said in a statement at the time. “The more users we get, the smarter the service will be, so we have room to grow and help more people.”
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Pfizer has had experience developing smoking cessation apps since at least 2015, when it launched its Quitter’s Circle program with the American Lung Association. Designed as an online community to provide users with educational and social connections, the program also supports crowdsourced financial support to help cover a person’s costs of counseling and treatment.
Pfizer is also the drugmaker behind the smoking cessation drug Chantix, however the company halted the global distribution of the tablet last year after finding impurities linked to potential cancer risks. Pfizer also recalled all lots of the drug shipped in the U.S.
Meanwhile, other pharma companies such as Sanofi have backed app developers like Click Therapeutics, maker of the nonprescription Clickotine program for smoking cessation.
Sanofi’s venture capital arm has played a large role in early funding rounds for Click, which is developing prescription apps for conditions like depression, migraines and schizophrenia, all of which will ultimately require FDA clearances.