Agreement Worth Potentially 5 Billion Yen for the VR Healthcare Market
First Step: Social Rehabilitation for Schizophrenia Sufferers
TOKYO, Feb. 1, 2022 — With the aim of building a regional cooperative mental health platform, Jolly Good Inc. (Chuo-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Kensuke Joji) and Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President and Representative Director: Makoto Inoue) have signed an agreement for exclusive product joint development and sales in Japan for a social skill training VR (“SST VR”) business. If including a 300 millon yen upfront payment from Otsuka Pharmaceutical to Jolly Good, as well as development cost reimbursement and royalties, the deal is worth 5 billion yen.
Reports(*1) have cited the combined use of pharmacotherapy and SST as a psychotherapeutic method that reduces mental disorder recurrence rates, and Jolly Good’s immersive SST VR is expected to help patients concentrate better and improve effectiveness. Dr. Ayako Kanie, a psychiatric specialist and senior medical supervisor, will be content production manager for Jolly Good’s VR business.
<Overview>
This agreement, which establishes a partnership between advanced VR video technology maker Jolly Good and Otsuka Pharmaceutical, which has an extensive knowledge, experience base, and network in psychiatry, will facilitate the development of an SST that uses VR for a variety of mental disorders and the creation of new platforms going forward. Jolly Good has already deployed SST VR for developmental disorders at over 200 hospitals, clinics, welfare support centers, and other such facilities across Japan.
Through this business, Jolly Good will provide the necessary VR goggles and tablet devices and will produce SST VR content for a range of scenarios in conjunction with Otsuka Pharmaceutical. Otsuka Pharmaceutical will compensate Jolly Good for sales activities aimed at healthcare facilities and will pay Jolly Good sales-based royalties. This partnership is Otsuka Pharmaceutical’s first business partnership in mental health industry using VR. The two companies aim to build Japan’s largest VR business in the field of healthcare for mental disorders.
*1: Hogarty GE et al.: Arch Gen Psychiatry 43: 633-642, 1986
<Comments from the Content Production Manager>
Dr. Ayako Kanie, Senior Medical Supervisor, Jolly Good Inc.
Along with suppressing symptoms, “self-actualization beyond therapy” is becoming an additional goal of therapy for treating mental disorders such as schizophrenia. Currently there is a serious shortage of people who have the social skill training and other attributes necessary to provide “psychosocial therapy.”
Our VR content development benefits from extensive involvement by psychiatrists in product design and aims to improve on and expand opportunities to provide psychosocial therapy according to medical theory. VR enables patients to practice in a nearly-real environment and will prepare them for success in real-life situations. This pursuit will pave the way to enabling anyone to acquire psychosocial skills.
< from the Companies’ Leaders> Comments
Kensuke Joji, CEO, Jolly Good
The high-precision medical VR system being developed by Jolly Good has been highly regarded in numerous fields in the healthcare industry, including training for medical staff, patient rehabilitation, and social rehabilitation training for those with disabilities or mental disorders.
This partnership will see the convergence of Otsuka Pharmaceutical’s extensive experience and sales network, enabling the enhancement and expansion of our SST VR. It gives me a great sense of joy and mission that we will be working with regional cooperative platforms nationwide to support the social rehabilitation of people suffering from mental disorders. Through this partnership, Jolly Good will develop a social contribution platform powered by VR technology while further expanding its business.
Makoto Inoue, President and Representative Director, Otsuka Pharmaceutical
Otsuka Pharmaceutical conducts its global pharmaceuticals business to address mental and neurological disorders, a key focus for the company. In recent years, technological advancements have seen a growing importance placed not just medications but also on support for daily living, which includes everything from prevention to caregiving. Along with putting to use digital technologies that will go into the creation of a new business model, we will work with Jolly Good, which supports healthcare via state-of-the-art VR video technologies, to build a platform for facilitating social rehabilitation among those suffering from mental or neurological disorders.
- About Otsuka Pharmaceutical (https://www.otsuka.co.jp/en/)
Guided by our corporate philosophy of “Otsuka-people creating new products for better health worldwide,” Otsuka Pharmaceutical develops diversified businesses as a total healthcare company with a focus on two core businesses. These are the Pharmaceutical Business, which focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of disease, and the Nutraceutical Business, which supports the maintenance and improvement of day-to-day health.
- About Jolly Good Inc. (https://jollygood.co.jp/en)
Jolly Good is a medical technology company that develops high-precision VR solutions and AI-based medical and welfare services that analyze user behavior in the VR space. Using technologies such as VR and AI, we are accelerating human growth and social rehabilitation in medical education, support for persons with disabilities, treatment of mental illness, and so on, as well as developing services to support the evolution of medical care and finding purpose in life, in collaboration with various research institutions and companies.
Jolly Good is seeking business partners to help develop, research, and sell digital therapies together in the areas of mental illness and lifestyle-related diseases.
