Psychedelics startup Nue Life Health rolls out free version of its ketamine therapy tracking app

Nue Life Health is a U.S.-based telemedicine startup that combines psychedelic-assisted therapies and a health tracking app. Previously, the app was only offered as part of its own internal service. However, the startup is now opening up its “Nue app” and its “Nue score” available for free to any patient undergoing ketamine therapy, not just its own. The FDA has approved a variant of Ketamine called “Esketamine” as a medication for depression.

The Nue Life app allows patients undergoing ketamine therapy in the U.S. to join Nue Life’s membership services to complement their drug therapy. The app has biometric data integration (Apple Healthkit and Google Fit), and accesses the ‘Nue Score’ progress tracking. The at-home ketamine therapy combines music therapies and a data-led, ‘quantified self’ approach.

All users in the United States who are undergoing ketamine therapy across all treatment modalities, including via lozenges, intramuscular (IM) and intravenous (IV), will be able to access the Nue Life app.

As a result, it’s likely that this will expand Nue Life’s market reach, as it rolls out these new services.

Last year Nue Life said raised a $23 million Series A equity financing led by Obvious Ventures (co-founded by Ev Williams, co-founder of Twitter), which was part venture debt and part equity. This followed a seed round in 2021.

The company has also now completed an extra $1.9m financing round from existing investors to back the app roll-out for free.

Nue Life says it now delivers “at-home” ketamine therapy to over eight thousand patients across the U.S. combined with libraries, apps, and aftercare programs.

In a statement, Nue Life co-founder and CEO Juan Pablo Cappello said: “We have seen that patients who take advantage of our full program experience a 20-30% improvement over the baseline of drug-only therapy. We are now excited to make all these tools, content and preparation and after-care programs available to all users that may be undergoing ketamine treatment with providers across the US, including at-home or within clinics or offices.”

Nue Life has also appointed Dr. Frank Drummond as its new Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Drummond was formerly the national CMO of HCA’s behavioral health practice.

Nue Life competes with Mindbloom, as well as Field Trip Health, which also has physical treatment centers.

In March this year, TechCrunch interviewed Mindbloom’s CEO Dylan Beynon about how he saw the future of psychedelic mental health.