MARkETING
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?
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.
