Within the last week, a company called Medinteract launched an interactive tool that you can use to determine if you have early signs of Alzheimer’s Disease. It’s called the ALZselftest. According to the company’s press release, the test is based on one developed by “Dr. John H. Dougherty, a leading neurologist, founder of Medinteract, LLC and Medical Director of the Cole Neuroscience Center at UT Medical Center in Knoxville.”
Here’s how the company describes the test: “In 2002, Dr. Dougherty developed the Self Test, a paper test designed to identify cognitive impairment at the earliest possible stages. Due to the alarming rate of Alzheimer’s Disease sufferers going undiagnosed, Dr. Dougherty has adapted his existing test for computer use, and has made it available directly to the public online.”
Sounds great, right? Did we mention that it costs $20?
Now, in the grand scheme of life, $20 really isn’t that much. In fact, Medinteract must have gotten a copywriter to help them with this line to help you see this fact: “About the cost of your doctor’s office co-pay $19.95.” Now, I get that this company has to make money to stay afloat and I don’t fault them for charging money for this test. It seems like a reasonable price for the information you get. The test claims to be 98% accurate and earlier diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s usually corresponds with better outcomes, so it seems like a worthy investment. My issue isn’t with Medinteract, it’s with Pfizer, Eisai, Novartis, Forest, Sciele Pharma, and Ortho McNeil.
What do all these companies have in common? They all produce or market drugs to treat Alzheimer’s. Dr. Dougherty’s test has been around, in paper form, for six years and yet none of these companies thought to create a free, interactive version of this test. Instead, we have to pay for it. Part of any manufacturer’s responsibility is ensuring that the right patients receive their drugs. This means ensuring that poor candidates don’t receive it and that excellent candidates do receive it. With this test, they have an opportunity to do both. They can find new, appropriate candidates and provide some reassurance to the thousands of people with family histories that they are fine and don’t need treatment.
What would the value of that be for any one of these companies? I’m sure that creating an interactive version of the test took some investment, but not much when you consider how much they invest in their current websites. The all-Flash and heavy video-laden site for Razadyne I’m sure was at least $500,000-$1,000,000 project (likely more). Two drugs, Exelon and Cognex don’t even have websites that I could find (of course, naming your drug after large, existing companies makes it a little hard to search for your product, but that’s another posting). Consider that either of these drugs could have done the development of the ALZselftest site and placed a “Sponsored By” ad on the site and gotten likely more press and traffic than they would have by building a brand site.
I’ve noticed this as a pattern for many drugs in that they are reluctant (or unable?) to create a tool that will help people predict if they have a disease or when it is likely to get worse. Consider the case of asthma. There are many brand sites out there, but none provides a tool that helps patients predict what is causing their exacerbations and what triggers they should avoid. Most sites give you a list of things to avoid without any personalization. A few sites have tracking tools that allow you to plot your symptoms and even details about the situation like your activities or time of day. Here’s one I did on the Asmanex site.
You can see that the site is gathering some pretty in-depth information, but that’s all it does…it gathers. It doesn’t interpret, it doesn’t help customize any information to my situation. Instead, I’m left alone to figure out what it means. With this amount of information, it would be really simple to create a tool that actually evaluated all these factors and gave some analysis. A simple algorithm could tell you to avoid exercising after 7pm when the air quality is low, for example.
Hellooooooo out there! We have these things called computers now and they can interpret things and even do math I hear.
Imagine if you were one of these asthma drugs and through your test someone who has suffered their entire life with asthma flare ups now suddenly has none because he knows exactly what to avoid. What would that be worth? The problem is that it is worth $0 in terms of sales…at least directly. Unfortunately, some companies are this short-sighted. “Why create a tool that’ll keep people of my drug?”
I believe, as a former pharma person myself, that inherently most companies understand the value of ensuring the right people are taking their medications and the value of keeping off those who don’t need it. This philosophy should help a great deal in overcoming the negative stereotypes that pharma companies have attributed to them. Companies can talk all day about wanting to do this (with no one listening), but an application like I’ve mentioned show that they’re actually doing it. Imagine the positive press and the traffic that your site would get (leading to a ton of free promotion) if you created a tool that could accurately predict and help prevent asthma flare ups. Your company and your product would suddenly be the experts on asthma and doctors and patients would turn to you for answersfirst, which includes your drugs.
One last reason why no healthcare company creates these tools is something you’ll hear me say a lot…they don’t know that it is even possible. Few healthcare companies have the internal capabilities to know the interactive and digital options that are available. Their ad agencies are typically “traditional” agencies that don’t know either. As money moves away from DTC TV, it’s got to go somewhere. Let’s hope it’s not print or online display ads. Instead let’s hope that it’s invested in something useful to everyone like the tools that Medinteract is getting $20 for each time, everyday. Not a bad business if you have foresight to create it.
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