The Digital Pill

Tell I don't like the idea of a pill spine on me. I'll tell you that. Well, you're not alone. I mean there's quite a bit of concern about what it means, um to have a digital pill, so where you take a medication and it has a a sensor inside of it, so it tastes it's like a regular pill, but uh, it does admit a signal as it goes into your stomach, and then uh, your caregivers contract at

and make sure that you took your medication. What it's trying to do is solve a big problem of people not being what's called compliant with their medications, that people aren't taking their medications. If people took their medications as they're supposed to. The theory is that it would improve public health, and it's that's probably true. The question is here, UM, what kind of you know, sort of big brother aspects does this introduce? Uh and people can uh you know

monitor you digitally uh taking your medicine. It raises a number of privacy concerns UH and also concerns about effectiveness, whether it would actually work as intended. Am I correct that one of the main areas of interest in this sort of thing, this pill is for folks with schizophrenia. Well,

so that's so. Uh So the first uh drug approved by the FDA in two thousand seventeen UH to use this digital technology UH is indeed a any psychotic medication called abilify um and that is primarily for people with

schizophrenia and also bipolar disorder. And so that is the first population that it's being um introduced in, which uh you know, you could see as a potential um sort of public relations mistake because these are people who have uh significant UM issues with uh you know, paranoia and uh,

you know, difficulty taking their drugs. UM. But on the other hand, it is one of the populations where the need to have compliance with medications is the greatest because when people do take their medication and they have schizophrenia, um, their manic episodes are are controlled much better. And when they go off their medications, uh, they can lapse into crisis with you know, potentially you know, devastating consequences including um,

you know, fatal outbursts and things like that. So you can see the need for it, but you can also see the you know, the real potential downsides. And I'm trying to picture this in the real world. And my son's been on a Bill of five but he's you know, a kid in our house and we know whether he takes his pill or not. But if he was out on his own taking a bill of Fi, this would be an opportunity maybe for us or the doctors or whoever to know. But by but you do get into

some weird areas though, as soon as you do. And I mean so you know, so it's about agency, right, Like, so what's the individuals? And you know, your son's I'm sorry to here by your son and that's you know, definitely, so you understand this firsthand. Um, uh, you know, what about their rights to self determination? And you know, are they being Um, you know, are they doing this voluntarily?

And so are they also able to you know, manage all the different complicated aspects of the software and you know, understand everything that's happening. Um and uh, you know are they being coerced at all? So that it raises a lot and then what happens to the data? So is the data kept in a very closed loop or is it potentially you know, um, you know what our insurers

doing with that data? You know there's um, you know a lot of data that just goes out and is h it's difficult to control people's healthcare data now, so um, you know, raise a lot of questions about privacy. Chris Rowlands a business reporter for the Washington Post. And so far this technology is like devastatingly expensive to right, Well it is so you know abilify and there's you know generic abilify will uh you know you can it's not an expensive proposition any longer to be taking these anti

psychotic drugs. Um and uh this would jack up the price to fifty dollars per month, which is you know, very expensive. A lot of health insurance companies are looking at this and say they raise a lot of concerns about this price, and it seems quite expensive when you know the the generic version of abilifies is cheap, so um and uh. But beyond that is whether it actually works.

So you know, uh, you know, the insurers who have their their hands and on the throttle of drug costs are going to be looking to see if it actually works as intended. So if you know, so far it hasn't been proven that this will actually improve compliance. That said that it will have somebody you know, continue to take their drug. Uh, that remains unknown. The FDA approved it just based on the fact that the digital signal is admitted once it goes into your stomach, so so

the so the end goal still has unproven. So that's sixty a month cost is prohibitive and is holding the marketplace back right now. Christopher Roland, business reporter for the Washington Post. Christ great job, good to talk to you, Thank you, all right, thank you. You know, there's so many things that are so amazing in medicine these days, but they're so expensive, and then you know, you find out it could really help you, but I can't have it because there's no money for it. That seems like

an injustice. Oh yeah, well, this, this treatment that we're starting for my son today is insanely expensive, and uh insurance, thank goodness covered it. Um. But if it didn't, and it often doesn't, for this very treatment that we're doing, it's gonna be somewhere around sixty probably, great, Scott, I mean, so, do you do a go fund me or second mortgage in your house or choose not to do it, loans

from family members, everybody? You know, Well, if you're desperate and you do what you have to do, Yeah, that's all got to get figured out. The idea of swallowing a pill that transmits something you know, the records of your being prescribed it are already somewhere. I mean, if you're worried about being hacked or that information being somewhere, yeah, probably so,