We are launching this call for applications to foster collaborations in digital health and redefine the Patient Journey. The Winner(s) will benefit from:

• Direct response about collaboration at the end of the Innovation Challenge
• Fully funded process and support to define roadmap for partnership between you and Takeda

• Expert support to bring your innovation to commercialization
• Dedicated budget to fund collaborations with the winners of the Challenge
• Benefit from Takeda’s international network of partners and suppliers

Takeda is committed to bringing better health and a brighter future to people worldwide through leading innovation in medicine. By accelerating the use of digital and data, Takeda wants to speed delivery life-saving medicines, while also easing the burden of diagnosis and treatment for patients, their families and healthcare providers.

Innovation across the entire healthcare ecosystem holds the key to fully unlocking the power of digital and data for improved patient outcomes. To make a bigger impact on peoples’ lives, Takeda is opening its doors to new partnerships that will accelerate the future of personalized healthcare.

To make a bigger impact on peoples’ lives, Takeda is opening its doors to new partnerships that will accelerate the future of personalized healthcare.

Enter Takeda’s Sleep Innovation Challenge: Applications are open to companies of all sizes. We are looking for bold ideas, solutions and technologies to transform the rare sleep disorder patient journey with special focus on Narcolepsy and Idiopathic Hypersomnia.

Sleep disorders are a group of conditions that disturb normal sleep-wake pattern and one of the most common clinical problems encountered. They affect overall health, safety, and quality of life for people. Takeda Sleep innovation challenge calls for creative ideas and innovations that can be developed to apply to the rare sleep disorders of narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia

• Narcolepsy is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness; other symptoms may include cataplexy, disrupted nighttime sleep, hypnagogic and/or hypnopompic hallucinations and sleep paralysis. [1]
• Idiopathic hypersomnia is characterized by hypersomnolence and is often accompanied by sleep of long duration and debilitating sleep inertia. [2]
• Estimates of prevalence of narcolepsy range between 25 and 60 per 100,000 people [1], whereas epidemiological data on idiopathic hypersomnia is scarce with most reports noting a lower prevalence than narcolepsy. [9]

People with narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia experience often a delay of several years between symptom onset and diagnosis. Diagnostic delays vary by region and often exceed 10 years. Stigmatization, misattribution, and other hurdles cause patients to delay seeking medical help for their symptoms. [1, 3-8]

It is challenging to recognize and accurately diagnose rare sleep disorders. Delayed or incorrect diagnosis is common, which may be related to poor disease awareness, lack of symptom recognition, lack of proper disease biomarkers, imprecise diagnostic tools and poor access to diagnostic tools.[3-6]

Takeda Sleep Innovation Challenge calls for solutions that can transform the rare sleep disorder patient journey from early symptom onset to timely clinical diagnosis.

1. Ohayon MM, et al. Sleep Med. 2021;84:405–414; 2. Billiard M Sonka K. Sleed Med Rev 2016: 23-33; 3. Thorpy MJ, Dauvilliers Y. Sleep Med. 2015;16:9-18. 4. Rosenberg R, Kim AY. Postgrad Med. 126;1:78-86; 5. Dunne L et al. Sleep Breath. 2016;20(4):1277-1284. 6. Morrish E et al. Sleep Med. 2004;5:37-41; 7. Luca G, et al. J Sleep Res. 2013;22(5):482–495. 8. Maski K ,et al. J Clin Sleep Med. 2017;13(3):419–425; 9. Acquavella J et al. J Clin Sleep Med. 2020;16(8):1255-1263.

While we prioritize solutions with proven value for narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia, we appreciate proposals that have originated in a different context but can be developed to apply also in rare sleep disorder context. Our call themes are:

We are seeking transformative ideas and solutions that can empower patients with onset of symptoms of rare sleep disorders to obtain a referral to a sleep specialist for diagnosis. These can include, but are not limited to:

• Digital solutions (e.g., apps, gamification) to increase disease awareness and disease education;
• Early diagnosis aids that leverage social listening, wearables, and other technologies;
• Innovative cognitive and sleep questionnaires, supporting people with symptoms to seek appropriate care;

We call for solutions with the potential to significantly improve the workflow and patient experience of clinical sleep testing, allowing better at clinic and at-home testing.

• 2.1. Devices and technologies to capture rare sleep disorder biomarkers. Clinically validated or on the path to be validated home sleep tracking products such as head band, earbuds with EEG and/or EOG, EMG & Actigraphy capabilities for signal acquisition and sleep staging, comparable to the gold standard polysomnography (PSG) and capable of detecting Narcolepsy key indicators such as Excessive daytime sleepiness, Disrupted nighttime sleep, Naps, Cataplexy.
• 2.2. AI based clinical decision support platforms at the point of care that can assist sleep specialist in diagnosis of rare sleep disorders.

Applications Open : August 24, 2023

Applications Closed : September 26, 2023

Finalists Announced : October 6, 2023

Finalists Event (virtual): October 12, 2023

Winners Announced : October 20, 2023