There is a company that has designed a therapeutic video game. And it’s already valued at $1 billion.

that video games can be more than just a way to pass the time This is something we have known for quite some time. That they are a round business, too, although figures such as those of the recent operation of Microsoft and Activision Blizzar for more than 60,000 million euros help us to remember it. Now Intelligent Mind, a Boston-based firm that rose to fame a year and a half ago by getting US regulators to authorize one of its games for therapeutic uses, goes one step further and leaves us with another valuable lesson: that design of video games can become an activity with an interesting medical application… And, at the same time, a billionaire value.

Intelligent Mind just announced which will go public after reaching a merger agreement with Social Capital Suvretta Holdings Corp (SCS), a special purpose acquisition company —SPAC, for its acronym in English— led by Chamath Palihapituya, a former Facebook executive. As Akili herself details, the combined company is valued at about a billion dollars after the investment. Its objective is that the operation is closed in mid-2021. From that moment, it will begin to be listed on the Nasdaq stock market.

video game therapy

Beyond the operation with SCS, Akili’s name is likely to ring a bell for his proposal for the therapeutic use of video games. In 2020 the US FDA gave him the go-ahead to its creation EndeavorRX as a treatment for attention and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

After a test with 348 children between the ages of eight and twelve for one month, the study identified that those who had used the Akili game had significant improvements both in attention and self-control. Through the note informing of its next IPO, the firm indicates that EndeavorRX must be understood as “part of a therapeutic program” that can be completed with medications or programs and points out that its use requires a prescription.

“With a launch scheduled for the second half of 2022, EndeavorRX it is the first and only prescription video game treatment with FDA approval and a CE mark indicating that it meets European health, safety, performance and environmental requirements, in pediatric ADHD”, highlights Akili, who presents the operation with the society led by Palihapituya as a boost to the commercial launch of the game. In any case, the company already aspires to broader segments of the population —children from three to seven years old, adolescents and adults— and has a partner to obtain the permits that allow it to extend the treatment to Japan.

Beyond ADHD, the company aspires to improve the lives of patients with other squares. “Cognitive impairments, including poor concentration, memory loss, difficulty learning new skills and making decisions, are among the largest unmet medical needs together and are increasingly recognized as contributing to or associated with dozens of from chronic and acute diseasesincluding ADHD, major depressive disorder (MDD), multiple sclerosis (EM) y autism spectrum disorder (TEA), as well as postoperative cognitive dysfunction and ‘brain fog’ from COVID-19”, they point out from Akili.

Through selective stimuli, the Boston company seeks to activate the neural systems involved in the control of attention. And it does so in an engaging way: through interactive mobile games, personalized for each individual and —the company takes off— “created to feel like products of high end entertainment”.

Regarding the operation, Akili Interactive details that the post-money capital value of the combined company is around billion dollars and will give a significant financial boost to digital therapies. Another key detail is that he expects Palihapitiya to join the company’s board of directors as chairman. Except for surprises, the process should be completed by the middle of the year.

Cover image | EndeavorRx