Pear Therapeutics will develop its digital insomnia therapeutic in the Japanese language, while SoftBank will evaluate the potential of the Japanese market for its applications

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Pear, SoftBank partner on digital insomnia therapeutic. (Credit: StockSnap from Pixabay)

US-based Pear Therapeutics has reached an agreement with Japanese investment manager SoftBank to bring its digital therapeutic for sleep/wake disorders into the Japanese market.

The prescription digital therapeutics (PDTs) developer is already offering its digital therapeutics for chronic insomnia in the US, under the brand name Somryst.

Under the partnership with SoftBank, Pear will develop its digital insomnia therapeutic in the Japanese language.

SoftBank will evaluate the potential of the Japanese market for the applications and can negotiate an exclusive license for Pear’s digital therapeutics in Japan.

The US-based firm stated that the partnership is part of its strategy to commercialise its digital therapeutics solutions in global markets.

Pear president and CEO Corey McCann said: “Our agreement with SoftBank supports our mission to bring digital treatment options to patients outside of the United States.

“The Japanese market has a large unmet need in treating people with sleep disorders. This opportunity fits squarely in our strategy to bring our PDTs to patients around the globe.”

Pear offers clinically validated software-based therapeutics to enhance outcomes for patients, and improve engagement and tracking tools for clinicians, at a low cost.

Its first PDT product, reSET has received marketing authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat for the substance use disorder.

The second product, reSET-O has received FDA Breakthrough Designation for the treatment of opioid use disorder.

Somryst is the company’s third product, intended for the treatment of chronic insomnia.

It was the first PDT product to receive 510(k) approval from the FDA, while simultaneously being reviewed under its Software Precertification Pilot Programme.

The prescription-only digital therapy was indicated for providing a neurobehavioral intervention to chronic insomnia patients, aged 22 years and above.

SoftBank executive vice president Eric Gan said: “Under our ‘Beyond Carrier’ strategy, SoftBank drives digital transformation in various industry sectors to resolve social issues and we believe that digital therapeutics can help solve healthcare issues in Japan by treating people with sleep disorders.”