Braingaze, a digital therapeutic company out of Barcelona, Spain, is preparing to launch its ADHD therapy app on Android, iOS and Windows tablets. 

The company isn’t new exactly, it was founded in 2013 and is a University of Barcelona spin-out. The Spanish startup has designed a video-game like ADHD therapy tool dubbed BGaze Bird, which includes a selfie camera that lets a clinician oversee the therapy at work. Children using the tool will be able to control the game with their eye movements. The company says that those specific eye movements are designed to reduce the symptoms of ADHD by training the brain areas affected in ADHD. 

While the company got its start in ADHD, it has also been developing a biomarker-based tool for detecting dementia and Alzheimer’s.  

While the tool has not yet earned an FDA clearance, according to a MobiHealthNews search, it is looking to jump-start its tool in the Chinese market. Overall, most of its bets have been made in the Asian market. It has inked a deal with insurance and finance giant Ping An Group. It was also one of the startups in Shanghai-based incubator ChinaAccelerator.

In the company’s release it also said that it was in talks with large pharma companies – though it didn’t specify which companies. 

WHY IT MATTERS 

Worldwide, the prevalence of ADHD in individuals under 18 is 2.2% of the population, according to the ADHD Institute. The CDC recommends behavior therapy, including for parents for children under 6, and behavior therapy and medication for older children. 

Because Braingaze doesn’t use hardware outside of the smartphone, the company pitches the tool as a cheaper way to provide care.

“It has taken us six years to get from the lab to a validated product that ADHD kids can use at home. It normally takes more than six years to achieve what we have now,” Laszlo Bax, CEO and cofounder of Braingaze, said in a statement.  “Striking deals with global players enables us to get the solution within reach of millions of kids that may not be able to afford expensive behavioral therapy, or whose parents are unwilling to give their kids a daily pill for the sake of good grades." 

THE LARGER TREND 

When it comes to ADHD digital-therapeutics, you would be remiss not to mention Boston-based Akili. In late April, less than a week after FDA opened the faucet for digital health products treating psychiatric conditions during the COVID-19 health crisis, Akili fast-tracked and released its approval-pending digital therapeutic for children with ADHD, which uses a video game-like platform to to deliver the therapy.