Pear Therapeutics

Pear Therapeutics was a prescription digital therapeutics (PDT) company based in Boston, Massachusetts and San Francisco, California, developing medical applications intended to function as software-based treatments for disease. Its products were tested in randomized clinical trials, received FDA marketing authorization for labeled indications, were prescribed by physicians, and were intended for reimbursement in the same manner as other prescription products. The company described its approach as taking a pharma-grade development approach to interventions that act through cognitive experience, a concept originally framed as "software as a drug" and later known as digital therapeutics.

The company's lead product, reSET, was indicated for patients with substance use disorder who do not solely abuse alcohol and whose primary substance of abuse is not opioids; it was described as a monotherapy with no drug component. Its second product, reSET-O, addressed opioid use disorder. By 2020 the company reported three FDA-authorized products covering insomnia and addiction and a team of roughly 200 people. Pear positioned itself as a fully integrated digital therapeutics company, with functions covering discovery of new digital therapeutic products, clinical development, regulatory affairs, and commercialization to clinicians and payers.

Pear's assets were sold at a bankruptcy auction in 2023. In December 2023, PursueCare, a virtual addiction care and mental health counseling provider, announced it had acquired Pear's portfolio of addiction treatment apps, with its CEO stating that the treatments needed a service provider with access to patients and insurers to demonstrate real-world cost savings to health plans.

Founding story

Corey McCann trained as a physician-neuroscientist through the Medical Scientist Training Program, studied at Penn State, and completed post-doctoral research at Massachusetts General Hospital, focusing on how molecules and experience pattern the nervous system. After working with RiverVest Venture Partners, as an engagement manager at McKinsey & Co. from 2009 to 2011 where he led the central nervous system expertise group, and then as an investor at MPM Capital, he grew frustrated that his investment work concentrated on oncology and rare disease rather than brain-related conditions. Drawing on his scientific training, he pursued the idea of using cognitive experience as a therapeutic lever — "software as a drug" — and co-founded Pear Therapeutics in 2013. The effort began as an attempt to raise a fund, screening roughly a thousand technologies, before shifting to acquiring and licensing assets onto a shared platform.

Business model

Pear developed software-based treatments that were evaluated in randomized clinical trials, obtained FDA marketing authorization for labeled indications, were prescribed by clinicians and were designed to be reimbursed like other prescription products. The company operated as a fully-integrated digital therapeutics business, with internal teams spanning product discovery, clinical trials, regulatory interaction with the FDA, and commercial functions including sales teams calling on prescribing clinicians and insurers. It also partnered with pharmaceutical companies, signing a deal with Novartis in 2018 to market its line of PDTs.

The company's products were designed to be prescribed by physicians and reimbursed like other prescription products, with a commercial organization selling to clinicians and insurers, supplemented by a pharmaceutical marketing partnership with Novartis.

Traction

By 2020 the company reported approximately 200 employees, three FDA-authorized products addressing insomnia and addiction, and roughly $250 million raised in total.

Latest developments

Pear Therapeutics sold its assets at a bankruptcy auction in 2023. In December 2023, PursueCare announced it had acquired Pear's portfolio of apps for treating addiction, alongside its own $20 million Series B round, with the intent to distribute the treatments through its virtual addiction care and mental health counseling network and to demonstrate value to health plans.