On neuroplasticity, cognition, aging, medication, Alzheimer’s, board games, brain teasers, and more

By SharpBrains | October 26, 2023

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing fas­ci­nat­ing research find­ings on neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, cog­ni­tion, aging, med­ica­tion, Alzheimer’s, board games, and more, plus some brain teasers to get you in great shape for Hal­loween. #1. Study: Play­ing board games like Chess, Mahjong, Go, helps slow cog­ni­tive decline as we age (but with clear dif­fer­ences in…

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Beyond the clinic: Can digital therapeutics (DTx) help boost mental health in the workforce at scale?

By SharpBrains | October 2, 2023

Hop­ing to Avoid Pear’s Fate, Behav­ioral Health-Focused DTx Com­pa­nies Look to Employ­er Mar­ket (Behav­ioral Health Busi­ness): The dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics (DTx) indus­try is at a cross­roads after one of the most promi­nent com­pa­nies in the space, Pear Ther­a­peu­tics, filed for bank­rupt­cy ear­li­er this year. The tur­moil comes after DTx began catch­ing on in the behav­ioral health…

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“Digital therapeutics” vs. “Mental health apps”: A growing debate on standards, regulation and efficacy

By SharpBrains | May 9, 2022

The effi­ca­cy of Men­tal Health Apps (phar­mafo­rum): In Jan­u­ary, PLOS Dig­i­tal Health pub­lished a study which claimed that there’s “sparse” data to sup­port the effi­ca­cy of most men­tal health apps. In their meta-ana­ly­­sis of pub­lished stud­ies, the authors found uni­ver­sal defi­cien­cies and con­clud­ed that there’s no con­vinc­ing evi­dence that app-based inter­ven­tions deliv­er mean­ing­ful out­comes. Without…

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Pear Therapeutics raises $175M and goes public via SPAC deal raising the profile of prescription digital therapeutics

By SharpBrains | December 8, 2021

Dig­i­tal health firm Pear goes pub­lic, rais­ing $175 mil­lion (phar­mafo­rum): Pear will make its debut on the exchange today after com­bin­ing with Thim­ble Point – a spe­cial pur­pose acqui­si­tion com­pa­ny (SPAC) – in a deal that side­stepped the con­ven­tion­al ini­tial pub­lic offer­ing (IPO) route and has pro­pelled its val­u­a­tion to around $1.6 bil­lion … Pear specialises…

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Novartis dissolves agreement to market Pear Therapeutics’ prescription digital therapeutics for substance/ opioid abuse

By SharpBrains | October 25, 2019

_______________ As San­doz returns mar­ket­ing rights for dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics to Pear, what does it mean for co-pro­­mote arrange­ments? (MM&M): “San­doz, the gener­ics divi­sion of Novar­tis, is alter­ing com­mer­cial course, return­ing mar­ket­ing duties for two pre­scrip­tion dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics (DTx) back to Pear Ther­a­peu­tics. The move, which some had antic­i­pat­ed, comes 18 months after the two signed…

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