Prescribable Mobile Apps Huge Threat For Pharma

With the proliferation of mHealth apps, it was only a matter of time before healthcare providers would start prescribing apps as soon as apps proved to be as or more effective than prescription drugs. Happtique, a mobile health application store and app management solution startup will launch a trial of mRx™, the first program to enable physicians to prescribe mHealth apps to patients. You could call it an “app formulary” that complements (and competes) with a traditional drug formulary. Anecdotal evidence has circulated that some apps have been more effective at addressing some chronic conditions than drugs. As more hard data is available, this represents a major threat to lucrative drug franchises.

Pharma Looking Like a Cross Between Railroads and Newspapers

As I outlined in IBM’s Reinvention Should Inspire Flat Pharma Businesses, pharma faces a grim future if they don’t take action. A program such as Happtique’s can be either a huge opportunity or a huge threat depending on how they handle it. Over the last several months, I have had many meetings with leaders of pharma companies that are eerily reminiscent of meetings I had in the latter half of the 90′s with newspaper executives...