The Von der Leyen Commission has announced a complete revamp of the rules around the pharmaceutical sector in Europe, with the headline commitment that the EU will find treatments for unmet needs and ensure that EU citizens, regardless of where they live, have access to the best medicines. All actors in the European healthcare systems agree with these objectives. But will they agree on how to achieve them?
Transmissible and Grumpy Owl Games collaborated through their shared company, Pandemos, to design a stakeholder engagement game on this topic for our client, MSD. At the European Health Forum Gastein conference, we facilitated the Stakeholder Engagement game during the session on 28 September. Conference participants stepped into the shoes of ten stakeholder groups. The overall aim of the game was to maintain a healthy ecosystem for the European Pharmaceutical strategy. To achieve this, the players must ensure that six key performance indicators (KPI) remain in the healthy zone. But, as in real life, each stakeholder also had their priority interest, so as each group decided on the best actions to take, their decisions influenced the interests of other groups. 
Arnold Bosman moderated the game session during the first hour, followed by a panel discussion on the key topics that came out of the gameplay.

The video below shows the entire gameplay, plus the ensuing panel discussion (starting at 01:00:00 in the video).

"This was indeed a very interesting game!"

"What [the game] clearly showed us, are the different interests and the different positions within one shared goal, which is actually enabling access to effective medicines, and how things can change when we support each other."
(Dimitra Pantelli, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies)