“A major manufacturer is interested in funding your Phase II study. Collect $150.”

“Investors are impressed with your Phase I results. Collect $50.”

“Discover new reptile saliva extract that offers a potential cancer treatment. Collect $150.”

It’s all part of “Monopoly: The Clinical Research and Development Edition,” a creative (and bulky) bit of swag that had folks abuzz at the Drug Information Association (DIA) conference in Atlanta last week. Conference attendees who’ve traveled back to their homes by now are guffawing as they use tiny pewter hot-water bottles, leaky ointment tubes and cans of chicken soup to advance from Patent Place to Post-Approval Park and from Efficacy Avenue to Feasibility Way, acquiring wealth through blockbuster drugs instead of 1930s real estate. 

Patient-recruitment specialists BBK Worldwide came up with the new twist on the old board game. Its booth was swarmed. On Monday and Wednesday—the two days they had the game in stock—they gave out 6,000 of them. That’s right: 75 percent of DIA conference attendees snapped one up. BBK had to give out vouchers after supplies ran out.

Advance to Blockbuster

That’s a major promotional-item success. Rob Laurens, a member of the BBK creative team who worked on the particulars of the game, says “Monopoly: the R&D Edition” generated more business leads for BBK than the company’s previous 10 years at DIA.

Not only that, but Laurens added that several contract research organization (CRO) types who snapped up the game—which does give a nifty if greatly simplified macroscopic view of how the industry works—said they were going to incorporate them into training for staff at clinical sites. Some attendees said they planned to order the game from BBK. Others said they planned to hang the game board on their office wall. R&D Monopoly as art.

Collect $200

Newton, Mass.-based BBK came up with the idea to assert it has a ‘monopoly’ on the patient-recruitment market. BBK ordered the games through USAopoly.com, which customizes the oldest board game on the market. Price? No one at the BBK booth could or would cough up the number. In addition to printing their name on the game board, BBK inserted a few mentions of their newly expanded software product into perhaps a third of the game cards.

Go to Jail

We wondered about one thing, though. On the time-honored “Go directly to Jail” cards, what are players going to jail for? Though USAopoly urged BBK to get specific, the firm didn’t customize those cards. “We thought that would be in terrible taste,” said Laurens.

—by Suz Redfearn