Digital health company BehaVR hits the merger trail again

Less than a year after joining with OxfordVR to create a specialist in digital therapeutics (DTx) for mental illnesses, BehaVR has expanded into the chronic pain category via a merger with Germany’s Fern Health.

Nashville, Tennessee-based BehaVR kept its name last time, but is now rebranding as RealizedCare to reflect its broader focus, spanning behavioural therapies for “a range of mental and behavioural health burdens.”

The merger comes with financial backing from German pharmaceutical company Grünenthal, an early backer of Fern Health and the largest investor in the combined company.

As its name implies, BehaVR has been focusing on virtual reality (VR) powered behavioural therapies for pain, anxiety, stress, and addiction, and added a virtual coaching programme used to manage anxiety in people with psychoses through its merger with OxfordVR.

Fern Health brings a “biopsychosocial” pain management programme – developed in consultation with specialists at Mass General in the US – that focuses on the underlying causes of persistent pain, through guided exercise programmes, sleep and mental health support, and one-to-one coaching.

RealizedCare’s business model is directed at employers, health plans, and other providers that want to help their employees and members, with the digital interventions backed up by a community platform designed to provide mutual support from others who have lived experience of chronic pain.

“We've spent the last five years building, perfecting, and validating evidence-based, immersive, digital therapeutics designed to address fear and pain,” commented Aaron Gani, founder and chief executive of BehaVR, who has been named CEO of RealizedCare.

“Through this new offering, we will unlock the power of those interventions to scale personalised care to individuals impacted by chronic pain in a way that prioritises outcomes, and offers the integrated support needed to manage these symptoms effectively,” he added.

There are an estimated 52 million adults in the US with chronic pain, which costs around $261 billion to $300 billion in direct healthcare costs per year. With the US still in the grip of an opioid crisis, there is a growing appetite to help people living with persistent pain manage the condition without strong painkillers.

Grünenthal is a specialist in chronic pain management, with a product portfolio that includes opioids like tramadol and tapentadol, but also other painkillers, including capsaicin-based Qutenza for neuropathic pain and local anaesthetic lidocaine.

It is also developing a novel non-opioid pain medicine, resiniferatoxin, which is in phase 3 testing for osteoarthritis-related pain.