DTx Start-ups Share Success Stories for Innovating Healthcare in the APAC Region
On November 9, 2022, Sharon Chan, Head of JLABS Asia Pacific at Johnson & Johnson, hosted the afternoon session on digital therapeutics startups in the Asia-Pacific region on Day 2 of DTx Asia at the Novotel Ambassador Hotel in Seoul.
Sharon Chan, Head of JLABS Asia Pacific at Johnson & Johnson, hosted the afternoon session on digital therapeutics startups in the Asia-Pacific region on Day 2 of DTx Asia on November 9, 2022, at the Novotel Ambassador Seoul.
Chan stated that JLABS is an incubator for startups in the pharmaceutical, medical device, and consumer health sectors, located across various global innovation hubs, providing resources to accelerate healthcare technology.
Jogo Co-Founder and President Siva Nadarajah, VPIX CEO Hwang Kyung-min, SKIA CEO Lee Jong-myoung, Bridge Biotherapeutics Founder and CEO James Lee, and Chan took the stage together to share their entrepreneurial experiences in the JLABS program.
From left to right: Sharon Chan, Head of JLABS Asia Pacific at Johnson & Johnson; Siva Nadarajah, Co-founder and President of Jogo; Hwang Kyung-min, CEO of VPIX; Lee Jong-myoung, CEO of SKIA; and James Lee, Founder and CEO of Bridge Biotherapeutics, discussed digital therapeutics startups in the Asia-Pacific region on November 9, 2022, at the Novotel Ambassador Hotel in Seoul.
Jogo uses wearable sensors and applications to treat various neuromuscular disorders and chronic pain conditions, such as stroke and urinary incontinence.
Siva stated that Jogo’s CEO expressed gratitude for JLABS’ assistance with regulatory matters and trial design, which enabled Jogo to develop a digital therapeutic for back pain that outperforms opioid medications.
VPIX Medical has developed a digital biotechnology tool for identifying cancerous tissue, which assists surgeons in performing biopsies and reduces surgical time. Also targeting the operating room, SKIA’s CEO leveraged his background in gaming to create an augmented reality (AR)-based digital surgical navigation system that overlays patients’ medical images onto real-time camera views, enabling monitoring of the location or shape of tissues within the images projected onto the patient’s skin.
James Lee, CEO of Bridge Biotherapeutics, shared his entrepreneurial success story. The company focuses on drug discovery, dedicated to developing novel compounds into innovative medicines.
He said, “The company I previously founded actually went bankrupt. But because of that failure, I truly learned what I am good at and what I am not; it was this experience that helped bring BridgeBio Therapeutics to its current stage of development.”
SKIA CEO Lee Jong-myoung provided a detailed overview of key trends in the digital health sector across the Asia-Pacific region.
“Digital therapeutics are increasingly drawing the attention of gaming companies,” Lee said. “Games can provide users with immersive experiences and shape their behavior through reward mechanisms. Therefore, this technology can also be applied to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).”
Nadarajah of Jogo revealed that the company chose to enter the Asian market by starting with India. Compared with the United States, reimbursement in India is more accessible, and Jogo’s technology addresses unmet needs in India, Malaysia, and the United Arab Emirates. He stated that digital therapeutics can succeed once appropriate data and scientific evidence are provided, as physicians are increasingly accepting of new technologies.
The CEO of VPIX also expressed a similar view, suggesting that the medical community adopt a more open attitude, as new technologies cannot survive in a conservative healthcare environment.
Regarding the future of the digital therapeutics industry, the CEO of Jogo stated that the sector will resemble the pharmaceutical industry, with many different players. Meanwhile, the development and clinical trials of digital therapeutics are as time- and resource-intensive as those in the pharmaceutical industry.
The CEO of VPIX also pointed out, “Although digital therapeutics are still very new and have only one or two key players, companies can succeed once they target unmet needs.”
Source: KBR (http://www.koreabiomed.com)
Original Author: Marianne Chang
Original Title: DTx Start-ups Share Success Stories for Innovating Healthcare in the APAC Region
Original text: http://www.koreabiomed.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=15008