In its first year-end financial report after going public via reverse merger last December, Pear Therapeutics inched past nearly all of its predictions for 2021—and planted the seeds for a much, much bigger 2022.
Its annual revenue, for one, rang in at $4.2 million, just ahead of the $4 million forecast. That represented a solid year-over-year drop in Pear’s total revenue thanks to a one-time influx of more than $9 million in collaboration revenue in 2020, according to the company’s 10-K filing (PDF). However, it also included a massive surge in product revenue, led by sales of the reSET and reSET-O prescription digital therapeutics (PDTs) that increased approximately 24 times over.
Building on that huge growth, Pear is now predicting that its revenue will more than quintuple in 2022, to around $22 million. To get there, CEO Corey McCann explained during a call with investors on Monday, Pear will be focused on expanding payer coverage of its PDTs, generating more health economic data about the benefits of the technology, boosting adoption of the apps and growing its PDT pipeline.
“After the year we had in 2021, Pear and the entire PDT category are poised for growth. In fact, we believe that PDTs today have similarities with continuous glucose monitors, telehealth, liquid biopsies and monoclonal antibodies immediately prior to their massive commercial expansions,” Chris Guiffre, Pear’s chief financial and operating officer, said on the call, per a Seeking Alpha transcript.
“Those technologies were new and transformational, just like PDTs,” he said. “Today, those healthcare technologies are commercial success stories, with broad coverage from commercial and government payers. We believe that PDTs have the potential to transition from novelty to ubiquity, and it is Pear’s privilege to lead that charge.”
Beyond mere revenue, Pear also surpassed its goals in its other measures of success. It surpassed 14,000 prescriptions for its digital therapeutics in 2021, compared to a forecast of 12,500, and also saw 51% of prescriptions fulfilled—just barely edging past its goal of 50%.
In all, the company’s technology grew to support more than 31.7 million covered people, surpassing the lower end of Pear’s aim of reaching between 30 million and 40 million people by the end of 2021.
“We think Pear’s rapid acquisition of covered lives in 2021, driven by real-world outcomes data, is a great reason to believe PDTs are here to stay,” McCann said on the earnings call.
Pear is betting on that longevity: In 2022, it’s aiming to see prescriptions more than triple, clocking in somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000 for the year. It’s also hoping to drive the fulfillment rate as high as 65% and ratchet up its number of covered lives to between 100 million and 120 million.
As McCann mentioned, in addition to expanding coverage and usage of its existing slate of FDA-authorized digital therapeutics—which include reSET for substance use disorder, reSET-O for opioid use disorder and Somryst for chronic insomnia—Pear will also devote much of its effort in 2022 to adding new apps to the group.
Two of the most promising candidates in the pipeline, as detailed by Yuri Maricich, M.D., chief medical officer, on Monday’s call, are an adaptation of reSET designated specifically for alcohol use disorder and a new program to treat major depressive disorder. Both support Pear’s mission to “become a one-stop shop for all conditions related to mental and behavioral health,” according to Maricich.
“We believe the market opportunity for three FDA authorized PDTs is significant. The market opportunity for our current pipeline of 14 product candidates is even greater. And the market opportunity for the category is greater even still,” McCann told investors. “We think PDTs are likely to transform healthcare. And we intend to be the company that leads this rapidly growing space.”