Pear Therapeutics risks folding without ‘strategic alternatives’

Pear Therapeutics said Friday it is exploring “strategic alternatives” and may need to restructure or fold if its efforts fail.

The digital therapeutics company is seeking a potential sale, merger, acquisition, divestiture of assets, licensing agreement or other strategic transactions, or additional financing, it said in a Friday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Without outside financial help, Pear said it may need to liquidate or restructure. 

A spokesperson for the publicly held company declined comment.

Within the same SEC filing, Pear Therapeutics withdrew its revenue and operating guidance for fiscal 2022 and 2023. The company said it will not hold fourth quarter and full year 2022 earnings conference call and webcast, which had not been scheduled. 

In a regulatory filing last month, the company said Chief Commercial Officer Julie Strandberg would leave the company at the end of March.

Pear posted a loss of $30.7 million or $0.22 per share in the third quarter of 2022 and disclosed that it laid off 22% or 59 of its employees at the end of the quarter. Earlier in the third quarter, it had laid off 25 additional employees. 

Pear Therapeutics went public in December 2021 in a $1.6 billion deal with a special purpose acquisition company Thimble Point Acquisition Corp. It has seen its share price go from a high of trading at $5.22 per share to its Friday morning value of $0.49 per share. 

Pear, founded in 2013, develops software applications that must be prescribed by clinicians and target opioid use disorder, chronic insomnia and substance use. 

Health insurance companies have been slow to cover these tools over concerns over liability, a lack of clinical evidence and slow Food and Drug Administration approvals. Pear has worked to get commercial insurers to cover its digital therapeutics and has found some success. Fifteen Blue Cross Blue Shield plans have added Pear’s products to their commercial formularies. 

Pear said it is working with investment bank MTS Health Partners to evaluate its alternatives. 

This story first appeared in Digital Health Business & Technology.