Novartis and Pear Team Up to Develop New Digital Therapies

Pear Therapeutics in March announced that the company has entered into a collaboration with Novartis to develop prescription digital therapeutics for schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis (MS). The collaboration brings together Novartis’ expertise in the clinical drug development and commercialization with Pear’s experience with digital therapeutics design and implementation. (In September 2017, Pear Therapeutics obtained the first-ever FDA clearance for a digital program to aid in the treatment of substance use disorders. The program is called reSET.)

Novartis will leverage their experience to help shuttle Pear’s Thrive—a smartphone and web-based application that was developed to help patients with schizophrenia manage their symptoms and adhere to their antipsychotic regimen—through the clinical pipeline. In turn, Pear will help develop a new therapeutic application that targets mental health symptoms such as depression and anxiety in patients with MS. ■