Prescription Video Games | Vaccines And Long Covid | Mental Health Parity

Plus: Mass testing of Beijing residents ahead of Olympics

Nearly one in five Americans, or 52 million people, are living with a mental illness, and during the pandemic, a larger number of adults have reported symptoms of anxiety or depression. Since the passage of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act in 2008, health insurers are supposed to cover mental health services in the same way as physical health services. But this is still not happening in some cases. A federal report released this week found copays and prior authorization requirements imposed by some health insurers are more restrictive than other medical benefits. 

“The report’s findings clearly indicate that health plans and insurance companies are falling short of providing parity in mental health and substance-use disorder benefits, at a time when those benefits are needed like never before,” U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh said in a statement. Both the Department of Labor and Department of Health and Human Services say they’re stepping up enforcement actions on health plans that aren’t complying. In 2021, the Department of Labor and New York Attorney General’s Office brought a joint enforcement action against UnitedHealthcare after an investigation found the insurer reduced reimbursement rates for out-of-network mental health services and imposed limitations on treatment. The $15.6 million settlement included $13.6 million paid to affected patients and $2 million in penalties. 

Given the historic access issues around mental health services, digital health startups have jumped in to fill the gap and investors have responded with billions of dollars. But some companies are using questionable tactics to try and recruit members. During the month of December, mental health startup Cerebral ran more than 30 Instagram ads showing a young woman engaging in overeating behaviors, saying the company could provide “the tools and proper medication to change impulsive habits.” Instagram pulled the ads, saying they violated its policies around eating disorders and body images, following a Forbes inquiry. Cerebral has yet to respond. 

Akili Interactive, a digital therapeutics company with an FDA-cleared prescription video game to treat ADHD symptoms in kids, will go public in a SPAC deal led by Chamath Palihapitiya. The deal, expected to close in mid-2022, values the 10-year old company around $1 billion. Its main product EndeavorRx remains pre-commercial and is targeting the second half of 2022 to enter the market. The biggest challenge ahead will be convincing insurers to cover the cost of the prescription game.  

Deals Of The Week

Cell Therapies: Cellino Biotech raised an $80 million Series A to expand access to stem cell-based therapies. The company aims to build the first autonomous human cell foundry in 2025, Forbes contributor John Cumbers reports. Meanwhile, Kyverna Therapeutics, which is developing CAR-T therapies for autoimmune diseases, announced an oversubscribed series B raise of $85 million.

Industrial Wearables: StrongArm Technologies raised $50 million to boost production and sales of its wearable exoskeletons that help prevent workplace injuries. The round values the company at $200 million, Forbes senior editor Amy Feldman reports.  

Funding Optimization: Machine learning startup BenchSci, whose software is used by researchers in both academia and pharmaceutical companies to optimize experimental design, raised a $50 million series C. The raise brings the company’s total funding to $97 million. 

Milestone DMD Collaboration: Capricor Therapeutics signed a collaboration agreement with Nippon Shinyaku to develop and market its drug candidate for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Nippon Sinyaku will make an upfront payment of $30 million to fund phase 3 clinical trials, and milestone payments could result in the agreement being worth as much as $705 million. 

More Backing For Moderna Partner: Gene editing startup Metagenomi, which signed a collaboration agreement with Moderna in November, just raised a $175 million series B round to advance its therapeutic pipeline and expand its technology platform.  

Noteworthy

Doctors at the University of Alabama-Birmingham successfully transplanted a gene-edited pig kidney into a brain-dead human, paving the way for clinical trials and hope for thousands of patients suffering from kidney disease. 

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban launched an online pharmacy offering more than 100 generic drugs at an affordable price.

Uber has hired Michael Cantor, a geriatrician and healthcare executive, as its first chief medical officer, a sign the ride share and delivery technology giant is expanding deeper into the healthcare industry.

Coronavirus Updates

One of the complications that emerged during the pandemic has been “long Covid”--where an estimated 20-40% of people with Covid infections continue to experience symptoms weeks, months or even years later. Now two new studies from researchers in both the U.K. and Israel have found that having two doses of a Covid vaccine greatly reduces the risk of contracting long Covid. The U.K. study, based on data on over 500,000 people, found that vaccinated people were 41% less likely to report Covid symptoms at least 12 weeks after having a Covid infection. The Israeli study, based on nearly 1,000 Covid patients, found that those who received an infection after being vaccinated were 54-68% less likely to experience any common long Covid symptoms compared to unvaccinated people. These studies bolster the case that vaccines not only provide strong protection against the worst Covid symptoms, but also prevent some of its more debilitating long-term effects. 

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In other coronavirus news:

The increasing number of reported Covid-19 breakthrough infections has prompted some governments to launch campaigns to give their citizens a second booster shot, though experts disagree as to if, and when, it might be needed. 

China’s health authorities have now gone a full year without reporting a single death from Covid-19 despite facing sporadic outbreaks across parts of the country, which raises more questions about the accuracy of its public data.

Test-maker Abbott Laboratories says it has now shipped over 1.4 billion Covid-19 rapid tests since the beginning of the pandemic.

The state of Hawaii will soon be updating its travel protocols to include a booster shot - with boosted travelers being able to avoid tests and quarantine. 

More Americans think that N95 and KN95 masks are effective against Covid-19 than believe the same of surgical or cloth masks, but they wear them less, a new Harris poll suggests.

Across Forbes

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What Else We Are Reading

• New dangers? Computers uncover 100,000 novel viruses in old genetic data (Science)

• Biotech bears are mauling stocks as 2022 opens on a bleak note for investors (Endpoints News)

• Key senators propose an overhaul of how the U.S. prepares for pandemics (Stat)