Pfizer ($PFE) is going beyond the pill with its latest mental health offering.
The pharma giant is out with a new app, dubbed Moodivator, which is meant to motivate people living with depression by encouraging them to do things like set goals, establish routines and identify mood patterns over time, Dr. Susan Kornstein, a professor of psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth School of Medicine who consulted on the app's design, said in a statement. In that way, it helps "complement the treatment patients receive in a simple, efficient and portable way."
The app is not designed specifically to go along with any Pfizer medications--it can, in fact, be downloaded for free by anyone from the Apple iTunes Store--but it is meant as a meaningful solution for people with depression, Pfizer medical director Gustavo Rodriguez told FiercePharmaMarketing in an email interview.
"Moodivator is Pfizer’s first app specifically designed for the millions of people in the United States who suffer from depression," he said. "The app was designed to help motivate and encourage patients with depression, helping them to take a more active role in their treatment."
Pfizer knows a thing or two about the malady. It markets multiple anti-depression drugs, including Zoloft and Pristiq. Other newer drugs in that category include Otsuka Pharmaceutical's Rexulti and Takeda Pharmaceutical's Brintellix.
But when the company saw survey data showing that 70% of patients being treated for a mental health disorder wanted mobile apps to be able to monitor their mental health daily, it knew it was time to add to its offerings.
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