The PHARM Game: Drug Discovery and Development

The PHARM Game is a proven learning tool to teach novice and experienced employees about all aspects of pharmaceutical drug discovery and development. Employees in the pharmaceutical industry often have a limited perspective of the full complexity of the pharmaceutical business. Even senior executives may know only a particular part of the business. The PHARM Game is an interactive way to learn new information about the pharmaceutical business as well as to reinforce current knowledge. How

The PHARM Game is Played

Two to three teams of three to five players each, using a large game board, proceed through discovery, development, clinical trials, and registration trying to be the first to "Product Launch". The game advances by teams successfully answering questions and following action cards. Teams face challenges when they must go back to the lab or encounter other obstacles which parallel life in the pharmaceutical world. The game can be played in 2.5 to 3 hours until one team reaches Product Launch, or it can be played for a specific time period, where the winning team has successfully answered and collected the most question cards.

Bottom Line Results

• Improves employee understanding of drug discovery and development activities,terms, and concepts.
  
• Gives employees new insights into how their role fits into the work of getting products to market faster and more efficiently.
  
• Encourages teams to work together in solving problems, taking risks, and making decisions.
  
• Makes learning fun and memorable.

Real Life Applications
The PHARM Game is an appropriate learning tool for small or large group meetings and can be easily integrated into established corporate training programs. The PHARM Game can provide "just-in-time" training with minimal set-up and be used for:

• Orienting new employees, including administrative, technical and executive levels.
  
• Department meetings, cross-functional team meetings.
  
• Management retreats, planning sessions.