Pear Therapeutics
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Pear developed prescription digital-therapy applications for substance-use disorders and insomnia.
02 / Pear Therapeutics FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
CEO Corey McCann cited difficulty obtaining insurer coverage and payments, which constrained product revenue, alongside challenging growth-company market conditions. Clinical use and regulatory clearance did not themselves secure reimbursement.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Company founded
Pear Therapeutics is founded in Boston to develop prescription digital therapeutics (software-based medicines).
- First FDA clearance
reSET receives De Novo clearance — the first prescription digital therapeutic cleared by the FDA — for substance use disorders; reSET-O (opioid use disorder) and Somryst (chronic insomnia) follow.
- SPAC listing
Pear goes public via a SPAC merger in December 2021, trading on Nasdaq as PEAR.
- Revenue struggles
Revenues reach only about $12.7 million against an operating loss of roughly $123 million; only about half of 45,000+ prescriptions are filled and only ~40% of filled prescriptions are reimbursed, with just ten states reimbursing the products. Two large layoffs follow.
- Chapter 11 bankruptcy
After exploring strategic alternatives in March 2023, Pear voluntarily files for Chapter 11 protection on April 7, 2023, lays off 170 employees (92% of staff), and CEO Corey McCann steps down. Its assets are auctioned in May 2023 for about $6.05 million across four buyers (Nox Health, Harvest Bio, Click Therapeutics, Welt).
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Insurance coverage and payments difficult to obtain
- 02
Product revenue constrained
- 03
Bankruptcy sought
- 04
Buyer sought