Takeda China's Digital Transformation: Commitment to Long-Termism and Patient-Centric Innovation

As the only company among the top ten global pharmaceutical companies that originated in Asia, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited is integrating the characteristics of a technology company with its own genetic makeup as a pharmaceutical enterprise. This seemingly incredible endeavor is transitioning from concept validation to a substantive phase.

At the beginning of 2022, as part of Takeda's global strategic adjustments, this "century-old company" with over 240 years of history elevated its digital strategy to an entirely new level, adopting the slogan "fully harness the potential of data and technology like a tech company." Subsequently, Takeda Pharmaceutical reorganized the previously dispersed teams related to data, digitalization, and IT technology from various departments into a newly established Global Data, Digital, and Technology (DD&T) team. The DD&T department has been granted a high strategic status, with its leader being a member of Takeda Pharmaceutical’s Global Executive Committee, reporting directly to the Global President and CEO of Takeda. Thus, Takeda Pharmaceutical's digital transformation strategy officially entered a new phase characterized by substantive, systematic, and comprehensive planning.

Recently, in an interview with VCBeat, President of Takeda China, Guohong Shan, stated that the significance of this digital transformation for Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited is no less than the company’s previous business transformations—from traditional Chinese herbal medicine to chemical pharmaceuticals, then to biopharmaceuticals—as well as its evolution from localization to globalization. In his view, digital transformation is a sweeping global trend that is driving the pharmaceutical industry into a new period of reshaping, making many previously impossible things possible. "Looking back 20 or 50 years from now, if we don’t make this change and fail to invest more in this field, we will lose the opportunity to succeed and miss the opportunities bestowed by the times," pointed out Shan Guohong.

Takeda Global Senior Vice President, President of Takeda China, Guohong Shan

After nearly 30 years of development in China, the Takeda China team led by Guohong Shan has recently welcomed new opportunities.

As the potential of data and technology becomes one of the five key strategic areas of global focus for Takeda, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited has also developed new expectations for the Chinese market. Earlier this year, Takeda Pharmaceutical officially launched its "Expand China" strategy aimed at a longer-term future. Takeda Pharmaceutical will fully tap into the potential of China as the world's second-largest pharmaceutical market and develop China into Takeda’s second-largest global market by 2030.

"The 'Expand and Elevate China' strategy is regarded by Guohong Shan as an unprecedented ambition, and it clearly cannot be achieved solely by relying on traditional commercial tools and models. Takeda's digital strategy and future layout in China will become one of the key supports for pushing the realization of the 'Expand and Elevate China' strategy. In the interview, the head of Takeda China also shared his unique thoughts on exploring the value of digitalization in pharmaceutical innovation."

For a long time, Takeda has developed a unique set of decision-making priorities in its business operations—PTRB, which stands for Patient, Trust, Reputation, and Business. Among these, the patient is always placed first. Guohong Shan pointed out that in digital transformation, adopting the patient's perspective will reveal more value and better innovative solutions.

In fact, between 2018 and 2020, Takeda China conducted in-depth research and thorough preparation for digital innovation. It hosted three consecutive Takeda China Innovation Cooperation Summits, engaging in extensive interaction and exchange with partners across the industry and ecosystem to gain insights into the current stage of development within China's pharmaceutical innovation ecosystem. Based on these insights, Takeda China formulated short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals it aims to achieve in the future.

Guohong Shan found that digital innovation could potentially bring disruptive solutions for the treatment and patient management of many existing diseases. For instance, in terms of research and development, with the widespread application of scientific management tools such as AI, artificial intelligence, and big data, an increasing number of innovative therapeutic drugs and treatment methods are being discovered, bringing tremendous benefits to patients who previously had no available treatments.

Moreover, for patients, the vast majority of treatment scenarios were originally carried out in hospitals. However, in fact, a large number of diseases cannot be fully managed in this single scenario of hospitals. There are numerous other scenarios that previous technological means could not reach. The application of digital innovation and digital technology provides new possibilities for patients. For instance, in terms of digital healthcare innovation, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited had already received approval in 2020 for myPKFiT®, the first management tool in China that supports hemophilia pharmacokinetics (PK)-guided management. This tool can assist healthcare professionals in formulating personalized treatment plans for patients with Hemophilia A and understanding the levels of clotting factors in their bodies. In the future, Takeda China is expected to introduce myPKFiT® 3.0 into the Chinese market. It is an updated iteration based on the existing version 2.0, featuring both doctor and patient interfaces, enabling visual monitoring of clotting factor levels and interactive patient management functions.

Moreover, at this stage, many patients are still struggling with the inability to receive timely diagnoses, a situation that is particularly evident among patients with rare diseases. With the development of big data and digital technologies, these patients may have the potential to be diagnosed earlier, thereby receiving appropriate treatment and timely prognosis management.

"Traditional doctor-patient interactions could also undergo disruptive changes," added Shan Guohong. In the past, even in developed countries, the ratio of nurses and doctors to every 100,000 people could not ensure that patients received comprehensive lifelong management. However, the intervention of digital technology may allow patients to seamlessly receive adequate clinical support and corresponding care at any point in time.

Guohong Shan pointed out that in the future, Takeda China will continue to focus on digital healthcare, digital user experience, digital patient support, and digital technology operations to better help patients address unmet clinical needs.

In 2021, based on earlier explorations, Takeda China launched TakedaSpark, an open digital innovation incubator platform for the first time. It aims to explore high-value innovative medical solutions and scalable implementation scenarios, providing quality medical innovation services to patients, healthcare workers, and hospitals. Gu Qing, head of Takeda China’s Digital Technology Team who also attended the interview, introduced that over the past year, as a trial in co-creating with Takeda China and the local innovation ecosystem, the first TakedaSpark selected seven local medical innovation startups to engage in deep business cooperation with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, specifically Proof of Concept (PoC) collaborations. To date, some projects have entered the later stages of implementation and commercialization.

Qing Gu, Head of Takeda China Digital Technology Team

In 2022, Takeda China announced at the fifth CIIE that it would join hands with Accenture and Amazon Web Services to upgrade TakedaSpark to TakedaSpark+. "We hope to continuously explore digital innovation and work with as many high-quality partners in the industry and ecosystem as possible to address unmet clinical pain points," said Guohong Shan.

Specifically, this upgrade has two layers of meaning. First, Takeda China invited global digital partners Accenture and Amazon Web Services to jointly participate, empowering localized innovation in the pharmaceuticals and healthcare field and co-building a new ecosystem for digital innovation. Second, the upgraded TakedaSpark+ has a clearer strategy, which will be advanced from three dimensions: "cooperation, win-win, and implementation," emphasizing implementation while placing greater emphasis on cooperation and win-win outcomes.

Gu Qing introduced that Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Accenture, and Amazon had signed a five-year long-term cooperation agreement at the global level as early as 2020. Starting from 2021, this agreement also had a China version that could be implemented, and the three parties jointly established the first cloud-based data operation center in China. Starting from 2022, the three parties will further deepen their cooperation, focusing on Takeda China's innovation incubator TakedaSpark+ to launch a new round of cooperation, increase investment in local innovation, and leverage each other’s strengths during the cooperation process.

Specifically, Amazon Web Services focuses on providing cloud-based technical architecture services to help small and medium-sized enterprises quickly implement digital technology in established scenarios. Accenture has long-standing and extensive experience in the professional consulting field. Takeda China's strengths mainly lie in its rich accumulation of medical expertise and experience.

Gu Qing told VCBeat that TakedaSpark+ is currently focusing on three core areas: digital therapeutics, early screening and diagnosis, and smart services. At the same time, when selecting partners, TakedaSpark+ considers the following points: First, the innovative solution must meet patients' long-unmet needs; second, the alignment with Takeda China's business; third, the technology must have sufficient feasibility, with a focus on practical implementation; fourth, innovation—Takeda China hopes to collaborate with partners who bring truly innovative technologies, ideas, or designs to accelerate Chinese patients benefiting from advancements in digital technology.

From TakedaSpark to TakedaSpark+, Takeda China has already seen several promising digital innovation ideas gradually taking shape, primarily focusing on three directions. The first is the integration of image recognition and artificial intelligence. "Currently, we have one such project in the later stages of commercialization. Its core technology utilizes image recognition to assist hemophilia patients in monitoring their physical indicators, accelerating patient recovery," said Gu Qing.

Secondly, it is in the aspect of big data mining. By establishing big data models and integrating massive diagnostic and treatment data from hospitals or government agencies, retrospective studies can be conducted to identify potential patients more efficiently and at a lower cost compared to traditional methods. Thirdly, the application of the Internet of Things (IoT). Based on wearable devices, relevant data on disease diagnosis and treatment are collected to provide patients with comprehensive full-course disease management solutions. Through cooperation with relevant institutions, a dual closed-loop standardized diagnosis and treatment monitoring system is formed. "Going forward, we will continue to explore more future-oriented solutions in the fields of digital therapeutics, early screening diagnostics, and smart services from these dimensions, and even more dimensions, while combining them with medical practices and patient needs in China," said Gu Qing.

TakedaSpark+ epitomizes Takeda China's accelerated advancement in digitalization. On December 6th and 7th, Takeda China, in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Accenture, hosted the Takeda China Innovation Challenge "Hackathon" closed-door roadshow. The Takeda China Innovation Challenge aims to recruit and select local healthcare startups with exceptional technological innovation capabilities that are committed to developing digital health solutions for TakedaSpark+. As part of the challenge, this "Hackathon" roadshow selected teams that will engage in Proof of Concept (PoC) collaborations with Takeda China and advance to the final stage of the competition. According to Gu Qing, the term "Hackathon" originates from the programmer community, originally meaning a gathering of like-minded friends and technical experts to overcome technological challenges through their demonstrated skills. "This time, we have shifted from the traditional slide-centric presentation model. Based on our partners' recommendations, we adopted this more efficient interactive approach."

"HackathonRoadshow Site

"This time, our use of the 'hackathon' model in the 'TakedaSpark+' project selection is actually more of a metaphor," said Gu Qing when discussing the significance of this "hackathon." "Accenture, Amazon Web Services, and Takeda China are like a group of like-minded friends sitting together to tackle challenges. We focus on unmet patient needs that we can imagine or see, proposing innovative ideas and possibilities. At the same time, we have also invited many startups to work together and explore innovative solutions."

Compared with the traditional form of creating slides, Takeda China and its partners incorporated press release writing and product prototype presentations into this year’s ‘Hackathon’ event. This format aligns closely with TakedaSpark+'s core strategy of "collaboration, win-win, and implementation," encouraging participating teams to use reverse thinking and focus entirely on users. This process drives them to deeply consider and optimize the feasibility of their solutions, product concepts, and user experience. Gu Qing stated, "The 'Hackathon' model is a relatively novel and highly valuable assessment format for the pharmaceutical industry. It helps us quantitatively test the real collaborative capabilities of start-up teams within a short period and provides a clear understanding of the overall quality of start-up companies. This ensures that shortlisted projects are innovative and feasible, laying the foundation for creating valuable products for healthcare industry users and addressing their true needs and pain points. This approach also aligns seamlessly with Takeda's core value of 'putting patients first.'"

On the other hand, the jury members, who come from different industries and have rich experience in pharmaceutical innovation, project investment, and commercialization, combined with the current status and prospects of the development of digitalization in global medical innovation, provided sincere suggestions for the innovative solutions of the participating teams and carried out full-chain empowerment from incubation to commercialization, highlighting the core concepts of "cooperation" and "win-win."

It is gratifying that the participating teams have shown a high level of acceptance for the "Hackathon" innovative format, and the feedback from partners has also been positive. "From the press releases and prototype products presented, the performance of the participating teams in the 'Hackathon' often gives me pleasant surprises," said Gu Qing. "This year's 'Hackathon' is an innovative initiative for us, attempting to collaborate with startups through a cross-disciplinary approach. However, TakedaSpark+ itself needs continuous innovation, and we will keep exploring and moving forward along the path of innovation."

At the end of the interview, our discussion expanded to digital innovation in China's pharmaceuticals industry as a whole. When speaking about the current state of development for local startups, Shan Guohong frankly admitted that these companies still face many challenges in their digital innovation practices.

First, startups need to accurately identify the pain points of patients or users and be able to validate these pain points in real application scenarios. However, the clinical environment is highly complex and constantly changing, requiring continuous and deep insights.

Secondly, startups often get lost when looking for high-quality partners. The digital innovation in China's pharmaceutical field is still in its infancy, and while many outstanding companies have emerged, some are still stuck in the simple imitation stage. Identifying those exceptional companies that focus on differentiated innovation and possess an original spirit is a process of separating the wheat from the chaff.

Finally, Guohong Shan stated that Takeda China is confident in serving patients, hospitals, and the healthcare system through its own systems. However, a single company cannot solve all clinical pain points. In the future, how innovative achievements can truly be transformed so that more patients can benefit from digital innovation solutions remains a long-term process that cannot be achieved overnight. "We will adhere to long-termism, continuously explore, contribute our own strength, and collaborate with all sectors of society to promote the digital transformation of China's pharmaceutical industry," emphasized Guohong Shan.

For example, in the field of rare diseases, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited has been advocating for the entire industry to do their part, shifting from competition to win-win relationships. This is because only when more rare diseases can be diagnosed and treated more promptly, managed correctly, can patients benefit from these innovative methods, and pharmaceutical companies will have sustainable, long-term development opportunities.

Conclusion: Unlike the digital transformation that has already occurred or is about to occur in other fields, the digital transformation of the pharmaceutical industry is destined to be a long-term exploration and persistence for those committed to the cause. As Dan Guohong said, the digital transformation of China’s pharmaceutical industry will undergo a process of sifting out the inferior, but we believe that continuous attempts guided by patient needs and practical implementation will undoubtedly accelerate this process.