West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. of Exton is collaborating with HealthPrize Technologies, LLC of Norwalk, Ct. to tackle the very costly and sometimes deadly problem of medication non-adherence.

The firms are integrating HealthPrize’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) medication adherence and patient engagement platform with West’s injectable drug delivery systems. The combined offering provides electronically-connected drug delivery systems that track when patients take their medication, educate and engage them, and reward them for complying with their prescribed regimen.

West says poor medication adherence costs the U.S. healthcare system more than $290 billion in otherwise avoidable medical spending.

“We believe the unique and exclusive combination of the West drug delivery platforms with leading patient adherence software from HealthPrize provides a powerful partnership to be by our customers’ side to help improve patient compliance and health outcomes,” said Donald E. Morel, Jr., West’s chairman and CEO.

HealthPrize uses a combination of “gamification”, behavioral economic concepts, education and rewards to maximize motivational impact. Patients enrolled are demonstrating an average of 50 percent higher engagement rates.

HealthPrize also offers real-time verification of medication usage via wireless connection to West’s drug delivery systems, including biologics and self-injected therapies.

The companies are developing system technology that will allow other manufacturers to interface with the HealthPrize software.