Novartis & Pear collaborate on development of digital therapeutics for MS and schizophrenia

A collaboration between healthcare solutions provider, Novartis, and Pear Therapeutics has been announced that aims to develop digital therapeutics for patients with schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis (MS).

The companies will work together, drawing on Novartis’ expertise in biomedical research and clinical development and Pear Therapeutics’ experience in digital therapeutics design and implementation, to develop new treatments for MS and schizophrenia that better address the full burden of the illnesses.

In particular, the companies will partner in advancing the clinical development of Pear’s digital therapeutic for patients with schizophrenia — Thrive. This prescription digital therapeutic is used in conjunction with medication to treat patients and provides real-time patient monitoring and support through a patient-facing smartphone app and clinican-facing web interface.

“Psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases place a heavy physical, mental and economic burden on patients and their families,” said Dr Jay Bradner, president of the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research. “With widespread adoption of digital devices, prescription digital therapeutics could potentially play an important role in future treatment models for a range of diseases with high unmet medical need.”

“We look forward to working with Novartis, an organisation known for excellence in biomedical science, to develop much needed treatments for patients suffering from schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis,” commented Dr Corey McCann, PhD, president and CEO of Pear. “Novartis shares our vision for prescription digital therapeutics that work alongside drugs to deliver superior patient outcomes. We believe this collaboration further supports the clinical viability of prescription digital therapeutics as an emerging treatment modality and we are poised to execute on that opportunity.”