Why Orexo is abandoning a digital therapeutic for depression

Swedish pharmaceutical company Orexo will no longer pursue an app for treating depression after many years of struggling to sell it.

Orexo announced this week that it will no longer license the product, called Deprexis, from German manufacturer GAIA. The two companies have worked together on Deprexis in the United States since 2020, and have deals for two other apps, including Modia, an app that provides psychosocial support to people being treated for opioid addiction.

For a company that has struggled with reimbursement for its digital therapeutics in the U.S., the timing of Orexo’s decision to pull the plug on Deprexis is surprising: just weeks after Medicare created a pathway for some digital mental health treatments to get paid.