Pharmaceutical research „up-close and personal”:
„Research is the best medicine – the Game”is on from 1. November:
With „Research is the best medicine – the Game” there is now a new attraction on the internet for young people interested in research, as well as for curious adults.
At www.die-forschenden-pharma-unternehmen.de/spiel, each month for a year, players are virtual researchers into new medicines for different ailments, under near realistic conditions. Attractively presented and intelligible for the layman, the website offers comprehensive information on selected syndromes and the steps necessary in medicine development. Moreover, online-researchers can participate in live events, interactive game sequences and chats with real researchers; they can answer questions, make decisions and gather valuable points with the correct game strategy.
The winner each month will receive a prize of 1,000 Euros and the overall victor, with the six best monthly results, will earn 10,000 Euros! The first month, November, is not included in the evaluation, so those interested in playing have another four weeks to enter without missing out on the chance of a prize.
"The investigation and development of a new medicine is one of the most exciting processes imaginable", said Susan E. Knoll, communications manager of the association of drug researching medicine manufacturers (VFA) which initiated the game. „Research is the best medicine – the Game gives everyone the opportunity of gaining a deeper insight into the world of research“, continued Ms Knoll.
With this very realistic game, the association, representing 39 worldwide leading pharmaceutical researchers, wishes simultaneously to draw attention to the amount of time and money involved in medical research. The development of a new medicine lasts on average twelve years and costs approximately 800 Million US dollar. In „Research is the best medicine – the Game " each project is compressed into a month and each month features a different ailment.
In the game, which was conceived, graphically designed and realized both technically and in its content by the specialized pharmaceutical and healthcare-marketing agency Juwi MacMillan, the possibilities for the exchange of knowledge and interaction provided by the internet are optimally employed. Live-chats with researchers, medical expert and therapists provide information on illnesses, their diagnoses and the state of the treatment. In Flash-games, the “single step” nature of the development of medicines is depicted and explained understandably: from the search for active agents, then from the first laboratory tests to human testing, then to official approval. Just as in “real” research, the players are simultaneously confronted with the hurdles placed on the track of any new medicine: too little time, insufficient budget and/or political decisions that influence the chances of success.
Register for the game here:
http://www.forschung-ist-die-beste-medizin-das-spiel.de
About the VFA
The Verband Forschender Arzneimittelhersteller (VFA) is the association of drug researching medicine manufacturers in Germany. The VFA looks after the commercial interests of 39 globally active and leading pharmaceutical manufacturers with their more than 100 subsidiaries and affiliated firms in the health, research and economic fields. VFA members represent two thirds of the entire German medicine market and employ in Germany around 86.000 workers, of whom more than 14.500 are in research and development.
Within the „Research is the best medicine – the Game” and associated information campaign, the VFA informs of the importance of research in the development of new treatments. Researchers talk about breakthroughs which have already been made, about innovations on which work is intensive while patients explain how various medicines have cured or mitigated their illnesses and improved their quality of life.
Further information is available at www.die-forschenden-pharmaunternehmen.de
