Pear Therapeutics, a company at the forefront of the prescription digital therapeutics (PDT) market, has filed for bankruptcy.

The Boston, MA-based company announced filing for Chapter 11 protection just a few weeks after it said it would explore strategic alternatives such as acquisition, company sale, merger, divestiture of assets, licensing or other strategic transactions, and additional financing.

Prior to the March measure, Pear had already gone through two rounds of layoffs – one in July of 2022 and another in November of 2022.

In a release, Pear said it would continue scaled-down operations during the Chapter 11 as it seeks to execute an expedited sale process. Having reached a settlement prior to the filing with its lender, Pear said it intends to use available cash to fund post-petition operations and costs in the ordinary course of its business.

In a Linkedin post, Pear CEO and founder addressed the filing and his future with the company.

“Today is a difficult day for Pear Therapeutics,” McCann wrote in the Linkedin post. “We announced that Pear voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 and will seek to sell assets through a sales process. We also announced a reduction in force, including me. This is certainly not the outcome I envisioned when I founded Pear in 2013.”

McCann added, the Pear team has accomplished a lot together in bringing the first PDTs to market. We’ve shown that clinicians will readily prescribe PDTs. We’ve shown that patients will engage with the products. We’ve shown that our products can improve clinical outcomes. We’ve shown that our products can save payors money. Most importantly, we’ve shown that our products can truly help patients and their clinicians. But that isn’t enough. Payors have the ability to deny payment for therapies that are clinically necessary, effective, and cost-saving.  In addition, market conditions over the last two years have challenged many growth-stage companies, including us.”

Pear was one of several digital health companies to go public through a Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation during the height of the pandemic. The company was also recognized by analysts as a trailblazer in PDTs, with three commercial FDA-authorized products.

Pear’s reSET is cleared for use as an adjuvant to standard outpatient therapy to treat patients with substance use disorder for stimulants, cannabis, cocaine, and alcohol. reSET-O is used to help those with opioid use disorder stay in recovery programs. Pear’s Somryst PDT is for the treatment of chronic insomnia.

Pear isn’t the only PDT going through hard times. In late March, Better Therapeutics announced it was letting go about 35% of its staff. The San Francisco, CA-based company is developing BT-001, a PDT that delivers a novel form of cognitive behavioral therapy to patients with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes.