Kyorin partners Hyfe to develop DTx for chronic cough

Kyorin Pharma has signed a deal with digital health firm Hyfe to develop a digital therapeutic (DTx) for people with chronic cough and launch it in Japan.

Hyfe's platform uses artificial intelligence to monitor coughing patterns by recording factors like volume, frequency, amplitude, and context whilst running in the background on an iOS or Android device, and has already been used in clinical trials and for patient monitoring. The company says it can track and detect cough with more than 99% accuracy on any mic-enabled device with no need for patient intervention.

For a couple of years, Hyfe has been working to go a step further, turning the app into a full-fledged DTx by layering in various behavioural therapy techniques that can help patients suppress the urge to cough. Kyorin will now assist in the process and bring the DTx to the Japanese market.

"This is a major step forward in addressing a highly underserved medical condition; by transforming a therapy previously confined to in-person settings, we are dramatically expanding access to millions worldwide who struggle with chronic cough," said Dr Peter Small, Hyfe's chief medical officer.

He added that the combination of Kyorin's expertise in respiratory medicine and Hyfe's AI will create "opportunities for deeper patient engagement, more precise treatment understanding, and improved patient outcomes."

Under the terms of the deal, Kyorin will pay Hyfe milestone payments tied to the progress of developing and commercialising the DTx product, as well as royalties based on net sales if it reaches the market.

It has been estimated that chronic cough affects up to 10% of the global population, and can have a significant physical, psychological, and social impact on patients' lives.

Around one in five of them get no benefit from standard drug treatments, such as opioids and corticosteroids and, while newer drug therapies like MSD's P2X3 receptor antagonist Lyfnua (gefapixant) have started to become available in some markets, including Japan, there is still a pressing need for new treatment options.

Hyfe believes its training approach, a digital form of behavioural cough suppression therapy (BCST), is one answer.

In-person BCST has been shown in studies to improve cough outcomes in up to 87% of patients and to reduce refractory and unexplained chronic cough by 41%, which the company claims is significantly higher than any drug available on the market, but access to the therapy is limited.

Hyfe estimates that there are only around 200 in-person BCST practitioners in the whole of the UIS, and very few in Japan, and a DTx could help to solve that access issue.

"The chronic cough market, valued at $17 billion and growing at 6.39% annually, represents a significant opportunity for digital therapeutics to transform care while reducing healthcare costs and improving patient outcomes," said the company in a statement.