CRO Curebase has signed on with Meru Health for a three-year clinical trial of the online mental health care company’s 12-week, smartphone-based treatment program that aims to reduce depression in primary care patients.
The study is being funded by the National Institutes of Health under its Small Business Innovation Research program and will be conducted in two phases.
The first, proof-of-concept phase will involve 15 patients using Meru’s treatment program, while another 15 patients will receive more traditional treatment that involves either face-to-face therapy, antidepressants or some combination of the two under the direction of their primary care physician.
The second phase will be a randomized controlled trial with 300 participants spanning eight primary care clinics across the U.S. Electronic patient-reported data will be collected and reviewed. Following completion of treatment, researchers will track patient progress for up to a year to assess sustained patient benefits from the Meru Health program versus patients receiving standard treatment.
“Meru Health’s smartphone-based mental health program shows tremendous potential for bringing effective and accessible treatment to the growing population of depression and anxiety patients,” Curebase CEO Tom Lemberg said in a Sept. 20 release.
The San Francisco-based CRO’s decentralized clinical trial platform allows clinical sites to streamline the patient recruitment and consent processes prior to launching a clinical study, the company said in the release.
In May, Curebase hauled in $40 million through an investment round that included Gilead Sciences. The funding was directed at expanding the company’s platform and entering the interventional studies market by investing in mobile applications along with expanding its electronic data capture systems, data management and remote monitoring technology.