Pear Therapeutics raises $80M; finds cost savings of $2,150 per patient with opioid use disorder

Pear Ther­a­peu­tics rais­es $80M in push for reim­burse­ment (Med­C­i­ty News):

Pear Ther­a­peu­tics raised $80 mil­lion in fund­ing, which it plans to use as part of a push for cov­er­age of its dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics. The Boston-based com­pa­ny has three FDA-cleared prod­ucts, includ­ing dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics for sub­stance use dis­or­der, opi­oid use dis­or­der, and most recent­ly, insomnia.

SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 led the series D fund­ing round. Sev­er­al of Pear’s exist­ing investors, includ­ing Novar­tis, also participated.

The start­up devel­ops soft­ware tools to be used either in tan­dem with or instead of med­ica­tion … Pear has drummed up some inter­est from insur­ers and PBMs, includ­ing Hart­ford Finan­cial Ser­vices Group, Fairview Health Ser­vices and Rem­e­dy­One, which cov­er its ther­a­peu­tic for sub­stance use disorder.

The com­pa­ny recent­ly pub­lished real-world data on the effi­ca­cy of its ther­a­peu­tic for opi­oid use dis­or­der, in a 351-per­son study where most of the par­tic­i­pants were cov­ered through Med­ic­aid. It also pub­lished data show­ing a reduc­tion in spend­ing of $2,150 per patient.

The Study on Cost Savings:

Real-world reduc­tion in health­care resource uti­liza­tion fol­low­ing treat­ment of opi­oid use dis­or­der with reSET‑O, a nov­el pre­scrip­tion dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic (Expert Review of Phar­ma­coeco­nom­ics & Out­comes Research). From the abstract:

• Buprenor­phine med­ica­tion assist­ed treat­ment (B‑MAT) adher­ence for opi­oid use dis­or­der (OUD) is sub­op­ti­mal. reSET‑O, an FDA-cleared pre­scrip­tion dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic, deliv­ers neu­robe­hav­ioral ther­a­py (com­mu­ni­ty-rein­force­ment approach+fluency training+contingency man­age­ment) to B‑MAT-treat­ed OUD patients.
• Meth­ods: This ret­ro­spec­tive claims study (10/01/2018–10/31/2019) eval­u­at­ed health­care resource uti­liza­tion up to 6 months before/after reSET‑O ini­ti­a­tion. Repeat­ed-mea­sures neg­a­tive bino­mi­al mod­els com­pared inci­dences of encounters/procedures. Net change in costs was assessed.
• Results: Among 351 patients (mean age 37; 59.5% female; 82.6% Med­ic­aid), 334 had phar­ma­cy claims and 240 (71.9%) received buprenor­phine pre-/post-index (med­ica­tion pos­ses­sion ratio 0.73 and 0.82, respec­tive­ly; P = 0.004). Facil­i­ty encoun­ters decreased, with 45 few­er inpa­tient (P = 0.024) and 27 few­er emer­gency depart­ment (ED) vis­its (P = 0.247). Clin­i­cal encoun­ters with largest changes were drug test­ing (638 few­er; P < 0.001), psy­chi­a­try (349 few­er; P = 0.036), case man­age­ment (176 addi­tion­al; P = 0.588), oth­er pathology/laboratory (166 few­er; P = 0.039), office/other out­pa­tient (154 few­er; P = 0.302), behav­ioral reha­bil­i­ta­tion (111 addi­tion­al; P = 0.124), alcohol/substance reha­bil­i­ta­tion (96 few­er; P = 0.348), oth­er reha­bil­i­ta­tion (66 few­er; P = 0.387), men­tal health reha­bil­i­ta­tion (61 addi­tion­al; P = 0.097), and surgery (60 few­er; P = 0.070). Changes in facility/clinical encoun­ters saved $2,150/patient.
• Con­clu­sion: reSET‑O ini­ti­a­tion was asso­ci­at­ed with few­er inpa­tient, ED, and oth­er clin­i­cal encoun­ters, increased case management/rehabilitative ser­vices, and low­er net costs over six months.

News in Context:

• The FDA clears Som­ryst, Pear’s dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic to treat chron­ic insomnia
• A call to action: We need the right incen­tives to guide eth­i­cal inno­va­tion in neu­rotech and healthcare
• New report: Empow­er­ing 8 Bil­lion Minds via Eth­i­cal Devel­op­ment and Adop­tion of Neurotechnologies
• Novar­tis dis­solves agree­ment to mar­ket Pear Ther­a­peu­tics’ pre­scrip­tion dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics for substance/ opi­oid abuse
• Pear Ther­a­peu­tics rais­es $50M to devel­op and mar­ket a port­fo­lio of dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics for men­tal health