[BIO KOREA 2025] Experts urge better infra and pricing for digital therapeutics

Experts recently noted that licensed digital therapeutics (DTx) are not being effectively utilized in clinical settings. They emphasized the need to establish an infrastructure that facilitates DTx prescriptions -- such as a telehealth consultation platform -- and to create a clear framework for drug pricing.

Bio Korea 2025, held at COEX in southern Seoul on Friday, featured a session themed “Digital Therapy, Beyond Innovation to Practice: The Path to Successful Clinical Application and Market Expansion.” During the event, experts discussed the current state of digital therapeutics (DTx) prescribing and explored solutions for integrating DTx into clinical practice.

The session was attended by Professor Shin Jae-yong of Preventive Medicine at Yonsei University College of Medicine, Professor Cho Chul-hyun of Psychiatry at Korea University College of Medicine, Jonas Albert, a partner at fBeta GmbH, Kang Sung-jee, CEO of Welt, and Song Jae-jun, CEO of Neurive.

‘DTx not recognized for reimbursement, need to rethink how drug pricing is calculated’

Experts noted that under the current fee-for-service reimbursement system, there is no incentive for physicians to prescribe DTx. To do so, doctors must explain the need for DTx -- delivered in the form of an app -- to patients in addition to their usual care. For older adults, additional staff are often needed to install the app and guide patients on how to use it. However, there is no compensation system in place to support these extra efforts.

Shin said, “Korea operates under a fee-for-service reimbursement system, and in such a system, doctors are not reimbursed for the additional work required to improve patients' quality of life through DTx.”

He continued, “In fact, even if a patient wants to use DTx, a doctor must prescribe it -- but there is no incentive for doctors to do so due to issues such as reimbursement, and the necessary system is not in place, so prescriptions are not being properly made. The effectiveness of DTx must first be clearly verified, and a reimbursement system and proper incentives must be established before it can be widely adopted in clinical practice.”

Cho also pointed out the challenges of prescribing DTx in clinical settings. “In the end, patient awareness is important, but it's still not easy to explain the concept of DTx to patients,” he said, adding, “We need to make broader efforts to raise public awareness of DTx.”

Cho added, “Currently, DTx is not just a matter of a doctor prescribing it -- a separate workforce is needed to ensure patients use DTx properly, but there is no reimbursement for this support. In this regard, medical professionals, industry, and the government should work together to build an ecosystem that allows DTx to be prescribed within the medical system.”

There are also calls for clearer standards for the reimbursement of DTx. Kang said, “DTx can be upgraded after it is licensed, and there is potential for new technologies, such as AI, to be incorporated. In this situation, it is necessary to consider whether the price of DTx should be lowered over time like existing drugs, or whether the price should be increased for DTx with improved functionality.”

He continued, “If the price of DTx is fixed, there is no incentive for the industry to upgrade the existing version or make efforts to maintain and improve it.”

Korea posts only 200 DTx prescriptions: Kang

There is no system in place to prescribe DTx. There are six licensed items in Korea but the number of prescriptions is insignificant. Currently, DTx approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety include Aimmed's Somzz, Welt's SleepQ, Nunaps’ VIVID Brain, Share & Service's EasyBreath, Neurive's SoriClear, and HAII's Anzeilax.

Kang said, “The number of DTx prescriptions in the U.S. and Japan is 20,000 and 2,000, respectively, while the number in Korea is only 200. The companies behind DTx have no separate protocols after it is prescribed, and they manage each patient individually over the phone, so there is no scalability for DTx. Since hospitals and pharmacies operate on different systems, we need a compatible delivery system, but it's also not easy to disseminate it.”

He added, “What’s needed is a standardized system that allows DTx to be prescribed like conventional medicines. Such a system could leverage the existing prescription infrastructure for medicines and integrate telehealth.”

Kang cited Germany as an example of how to establish a DTx prescription process similar to that of conventional medicines.

“In Germany, there are 600,000 prescriptions for DTx,” he said. “If a doctor takes a picture of a DiGa (digital therapy device) before prescribing it, the prescription is immediately confirmed, and the patient can access the DTx in the form of an app. It makes sense for us to utilize the system we already have,” he explained.

Shin said, “Our goal is to link all digital therapeutic devices to a telemedicine consultation platform, which we are working on as a national project.” Telehealth should be the foundation for patients and physicians to utilize digital healthcare, he added.