Pear Therapeutics risks shutting down without ‘strategic alternatives’

Pear Therapeutics said Friday it is exploring “strategic alternatives” and may need to restructure or wind down if its efforts are not successful.

The digital therapy company is seeking a potential sale, merger, acquisition, divestiture, licensing agreement, or other strategic deals or additional funding, it said in a filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Pear stated that without external financial assistance, liquidation or restructuring may be required.

A spokesman for the public company declined to comment.

In the same SEC filing, Pear Therapeutics withdrew its revenue and operating forecasts for fiscal years 2022 and 2023. The company said it will not hold a conference call and webcast on fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 earnings that were not scheduled.

In a regulatory report 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 said it laid off 22% or 59 of its employees at the end of the quarter. Earlier in the third quarter, 25 additional employees were laid off.

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

Pear, founded in 2013, develops physician-prescribed software applications that target opioid use disorders, chronic insomnia, and substance use.

Health insurance companies have been slow to cover these tools due to liability concerns, lack of clinical evidence, and slow FDA clearances. Pear has been working to get commercial insurance companies to cover its digital therapy, with some success. Fifteen Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans added Pear’s products to your business forms.

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

This story first appeared in Digital Health Business & Technology.