On Friday Boston-based Pear Therapeutics announced a whopping $64 million Series C funding. The latest financing was led by Temasek, with participation from Novartis, 5AM Ventures, Arboretum Ventures, Jazz Venture Partners, The Bridge Builders Collaborative and EDBI. 

This announcement comes just one year after the digital therapeutic maker landed $50 million in Series B funding. 

What they do

The Boston-based company makes prescription software-based treatments. Its first products focused on addiction treatment but digital therapeutics for schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis and other conditions are in the works. In 2017 it landed a de novo for for reSET, making it the the first software-only digital therapeutic the FDA cleared with claims to improve clinical outcomes in a disease. 

The company continued to make strides in the space last month when it got the FDA nod for its product reSET-O, a prescription digital therapeutic designed to treat opioid use disorder, which was jointly developed with Novartis subsidiary Sandoz. 

Pear inked a deal with Novartis last March to develop digital therapeutics for multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia—making it the first time a pharma company made a development deal with a digital therapeutic company, according to Pear. 

What it’s for

The new money is set to help the company globalize the commercialization of the reSET suite of products—which were first commercially launched in November. The $64 million will also help fund company’s products that are in the clinical-stage pipeline and give it the opportunity to “acquire additional assets,” according to a statement. 

Market snapshot

Digital therapeutics are becoming increasingly more mainstream and pharma companies are starting to take notice—singing deals with various digital therapeutic makers. 

“If we define digital therapeutics as the best in class drugs that are approved based on clinical efficacy and safety, then it is almost the opposite question we should be asking: why wouldn’t a pharma industry, or a company like Novartis want to, in fact need to, be in the space?” Jeremy Sohn, vice president and global head of digital business development and licensing at Novartis, said at a panel discussion at BIO 2018 in June. 

Only last week Click Therapeutics, maker of software as a prescription medical treatment, teamed up with Otsuka America to create a new digital therapeutic to treat major depressive disorder. Otsuka is set to invest upwards of $300 million in creating the FDA-cleared software app. 

On the record 

“Pear ended 2018 with a number of major catalysts including commercial launch, product authorization, and pipeline advancement,” Dr. Corey McCann, President and CEO of Pear, said in a statement. “Pear now kicks off 2019 with additional capital to bring PDTs to patients. We look forward to establishing PDTs as a widespread modality for directly treating a range of serious diseases.”