Novartis, Pear Move Digital Schizophrenia Treatment Into Phase 2

Novartis and PEAR Therapeutics (PEAR) are set to move Pear-004, a digital schizophrenia treatment, into Phase 2 testing. The announcement comes after the two organizations announced earlier this year that they would be partnering to develop prescription digital therapeutics for the treatment of schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis.

To date, PEAR has displayed in testing that its apps are able to encourage sustained treatment of individuals with addiction disorder—and now hopes to prove such with individuals with schizophrenia. PEAR notes that digital treatments allow health care consumers to avoid negative side effects to medication-only treatment, such as diabetes . . .