Novartis Chip Implant Texts Your Phone When You Need Another Pill

Novartis Chip Implant Texts Your Phone When You Need Another Pill
By Jim Edwards | Sep 22, 2009

ShareMyBNETEmailDiggFacebookTwitterGoogleDeliciousStumbleUponNewsvineLinkedInMy YahooTechnoratiRedditPrintRecommend0Novartis implanted computer chips into the shoulders of 20 patients taking the blood pressure drug Diovan; the chips sent text messages to their cellphones when it was time to take the next pill. The experiment was designed to improve “compliance.” (Lousy compliance is the phenomenon of patients receiving prescriptions but not filling or taking them — thus costing Big Pharma sales.)

The development will be sure to horrify conspiracy theorists, civil libertarians, privacy activists, paranoid schizophrenics and anyone else who does not want a computer chip monitored by a multinational drug company inserted into their body.

Novartis’ efforts are doubly creepy because it actually involves two internal chips. The first chip is inside the pill being swallowed. It sends a signal to the chip in your shoulder. If you fail to take your next pill, the shoulder chip nags you on your mobile. Note that after the text arrives on your phone, the message then goes “onto the internet for caregivers to review and analyze.”

Creepiest of all? It works, according to the FT:

Joe Jimenez, head of pharmaceuticals at Novartis, said tests using the system – which broadcasts from the “chip in the pill” to a receiver on the shoulder – on 20 patients using Diovan, a drug to lower blood pressure, had boosted “compliance” with prescriptions from 30 per cent to 80 per cent after six months.

And finally: “Pfizer’s Health Solutions division has developed a system to telephone patients to encourage them to take medicine,” the FT notes.

Bonus: Could the next step for drug companies be a version of ED 209 from the movie Robocop? If you don’t take your pill, he shows up in your house and gives you 20 seconds to comply. See video.



Tags: Patient, Phone, Novartis AG, Pill, Chip, Semiconductors, Network Technology, Hardware, Networking, Jim Edwards


Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.


BNET User Analysis
Voice your 2centsWeb Buzz:
Waiting for New Novartis HBP Drug
Seeking Alpha - 7 days 15 hours 48 minutes ago

Zacks.com submits: Novartis NVS is expected to launch its high blood pressure drug Valturna shortly after the recent US Food and Drug Administration approval. The drug is a single-pill combination of Diovan valsartan, an angiotensin receptor blocker and Tekturna aliskiren, the only approved direct renin inhibitor. We believe

New Tekturna HCT approval in the US
Scrip News - 76 days 9 hours 40 minutes ago

The US FDA has approved Novartis's combination antihypertensive Tekturna HCT (aliskiren and hydrochlorothiazide) for first-line use in patients who are likely to need more than one drug therapy to control their blood pressure. The dual

US FDA approves Novartis's hypertension drug combo, Valturna
Scrip News - 17 days 8 hours 10 minutes ago

The US FDA has given the green light to Novartis's combination high blood pressure drug Valturna (valsartan plus aliskiren). It is indicated as a first-line treatment for patients likely to need multiple drugs to achieve their blood

Novartis profit jumps, but foresees tougher 2009
Globe and Mail - 250 days 45 minutes ago

Swiss drug maker Novartis AG expects 2009 to be increasingly tough, even after sales of blood pressure and cancer drugs helped drive fourth-quarter profit up 62 per cent to $1.5-billion (U.S.). Novartis said yesterday it expected 2009 to be "increasingly challenging." The company faces looming loss of patent protection for its top-selling Diovan...

Drug sales drive Novartis profits
BBC - 250 days 16 hours 4 minutes ago

Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceuticals giant, has reported strong growth in full year profits, driven by sales of blood-pressure and cancer drugs. Net profit for 2008 jumped 24.8%, from $6.54bn (£4.6bn) in 2007 to $8.16bn. Year-on-year net profits in the three months to December, when the global economy moved towards recession, grew by 62%, from...