Mental health is one of the often overshadowed issues of the COVID-19 pandemic. For many, the isolation caused by quarantine has caused increased stress levels without effective ways for people to manage their newfound anxiety. In response, AeBeZe Labs, a San Francisco-based startup specializing in Digital Nutrition™, has come up with a system to deliver digital therapeutics based on a user's altered emotional state. U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2020/0327977 describes a system for delivering these digital therapeutics based on the mental state of the user as specified by the user, a physician, or by means of the system's own mental state tracker. This publication is likely associated with AeBeZe's Moodrise App, which is already available through both the Apple App Store and Google Play and which helps to calm, energize, or inspire users by means of short interactive modules.
In other COVID-19-related news, Johnson & Johnson announced this week that it would pause clinical trials for its COVID-19 vaccine due to an unexplained illness by one of the participants of the study. This announcement was quickly followed by Eli Lilly and Astrazeneca both announcing they would be ceasing their own trials for similar reasons. Johnson & Johnson has stated that it hopes that the trial can resume shortly, but it's unclear what the precise timeline for a restart would be as of now.
Additionally, Moderna made headlines last week by announcing that it would not be enforcing any of its seven patents related to a COVID-19 vaccine for the duration of the pandemic. As of now, it's unclear whether other companies will follow suit in refusing to enforce their IP rights.
For more updates on the ongoing search for a COVID-19 vaccine, check out the free interactive visual Pandemics Patent Forecast® offered by Magic Number.
