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How Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim and Others Are Using Video Games to Drive Results How healthcare companies can up their game and their profits This industry gets a lot of criticism for the price of medications, mostly based on the few examples that end up in court and make headlines. But are price hikes, in fact, a common way of preserving profitability? Recent articles have shown that Pfizer (just to take one example) has raised the price of nearly 100 drugs by an average of 20% in the past year. While Pfizer answered queries by saying that the average net selling price, after discounts and rebates, is only 4%, this still points to a trend that needs to be addressed. The issue is made more pressing when US costs are compared to other industrialized countries, such as those in Europe, where pricing is typically lower. As we know, this often leads to consumers buying prescription drugs from a source outside of the United States. There are many factors that affect the trend. One, of course, is the sharp spike in non-adherence. According to the latest Truven Health Analytics-NPR Health Poll, as many as 67% of patients are non-adherent, up from 50% as reported in 2011 by the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Why is this becoming more of a problem? In a sort of circular pattern, cost is cited as a reason for not filling—or not refilling—a prescription. Clinical impacts, such as side effects, are another. Some patients don’t think the medication is working, and others just forget to stay with the program. As we’ve reported in these pages, non-adherence has been estimated to cause as much as a $637 billion loss for the industry. Keeping prices down may be one way of increasing adherence, and companies have pledged to do so. But how can they deal with the other issues?
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The Fun Factor One way is by understanding the psychological and emotional resistance to taking medications, so that we can develop techniques for encouraging better compliance. Many companies are turning to gaming to accomplish this, on the same theory that moms use in getting kids to take their cough medicine: “Here comes the airplane—open up the hangar!” To return to Pfizer, that company recently launched Hemocraft, based on the wildly successful Minecraft series of video games. Hemocraft is aimed at younger hemophilia patients, between 8 and 16. Pfizer’s Chief Medical Officer Kevin W. Williams said “These new digital innovations can be integrated into everyday routines to help empower people with hemophilia to learn about and track different aspects relevant to their disease so that they can have informed conversations with their health care providers.” Hemocraft was created in partnership with the Entrepreneurial Game Studio at Drexel University and representatives from the hemophilia community. Players meet a village doctor to learn about their treatment plan, and face challenges to control factor levels. Will it work? Hemocraft was introduced only in June of this year, so the results aren’t yet in. But other examples serve to show that gamification is a worthwhile therapy. One of the leaders in this space is HealthPrize, which has a long list of case histories showing the success of the technique.
