"Awake Every Night, Every Day... The Beginning of DTx, An Analysis of Insomnia"

[DTx Era⑤] Welt 'PillowRx'·AimMed 'Somz'
Domestic First Therapeutic Clinical Trials Near Completion

Im Jin-hwan, CEO of AimMed (photo left), and Kang Sung-ji, CEO of Welt

Welt and AimMed, companies considered to be the closest to developing Korea's first digital therapeutics (DTx), did not initially focus solely on insomnia treatment. Welt started as a digital healthcare company that developed a waist belt detecting users' waist circumference, step count, overeating, calorie consumption, and blood sugar levels, linking it to smartphones to assist personal health management, and later expanded into DTx development. Kang Sung-ji, CEO of Welt, said, "While reviewing DTx development for various diseases, considering the outcomes of prior overseas research, the growth potential of the insomnia treatment market, and the potential risks in the early stages of the DTx market, we decided to start with insomnia treatment development."

AimMed, specialized in employee health management, psychological counseling, and chronic disease management, also entered the DTx business while expanding its digital healthcare operations. It has already made significant progress in developing DTx for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, based on clinical trial results, it predicts that insomnia treatment will be more advantageous for obtaining government approval and subsequent insurance coverage for commercialization, so it has been accelerating development. In other words, both companies judged that insomnia treatment DTx could expect the best therapeutic effects among various DTx areas.

For insomnia patients, sleeping pills are not the first recommended treatment. Counseling therapy that helps patients overcome insomnia by changing lifestyle or sleep environment without taking sleeping pills, or alleviates anxiety and compulsions about needing to sleep, should come first. However, patients find it difficult to implement these on their own, and doctors cannot devote sufficient time to each patient due to low reimbursement rates and other issues. As a result, a vicious cycle occurs where drug treatment is prolonged without clear therapeutic effects.

DTx offers the advantage of allowing patients to receive continuous treatment anytime and anywhere without face-to-face consultations with doctors. For elderly patients who live far from hospitals or have limited mobility, access to insomnia treatment improves, and for patients who find it difficult to visit psychiatric clinics due to mental or physical difficulties or stigma, the threshold is lowered. Patients with mild insomnia can expect short-term therapeutic effects by using only a DTx app instead of taking sleeping pills. For patients with severe symptoms, a treatment method combining sleeping pills and DTx initially, gradually reducing sleeping pill dosage through behavioral correction, is also possible.

So, what differences exist between DTx developed by these different companies? Professor Jung Seok-hoon of the Department of Psychiatry at Seoul Asan Medical Center explained, "Cognitive behavioral therapy itself is a concept that systematizes and establishes what we might consider somewhat obvious in daily life to better persuade patients. Just as patient adherence varies depending on how a doctor conveys the same message, DTx will differentiate based on how interactions with patients are structured, affecting therapeutic effects and adherence."

Im Jin-hwan, CEO of AimMed, emphasized, "The core of DTx will be how customized it can be according to each patient's symptoms and how well patients can follow the treatment."