Pharma Digital Marketing Forum Unveils Future Trends of China's Pharmaceutical Digital Marketing

As centralized drug procurement, national reimbursement drug list (NRDL) negotiations, and other measures become normalized, the pharmaceutical distribution market is being reshaped. This transformation is cascading upstream, driving changes in marketing strategies across pharmaceutical companies, as they seek more effective, cost-efficient, and higher-performing marketing approaches.

On the afternoon of May 6, 2023, at the 2023 7th Future Healthcare Top 100 held in Zhangjiang, Shanghai—Pharmaceutical Companies' Digital Marketing Sub-ForumAt the event, numerous industry leaders engaged in an in-depth discussion on the future development trends of digital marketing for pharmaceutical companies. The attendees included Fan Xiaoyu, Senior Researcher at VCBeat; Hu Jiapeng, Head of Commercial Insurance and Payment Innovation for Human Pharmaceuticals at Boehringer Ingelheim; Fan Jing, Head of Digital Marketing Department, Pharmaceutical Business Unit, JD Health; Wang Shuai, Vice President and Executive Director of MedSci; Zhou Guanhua, Market Research Director of Ipsos Healthcare Team; Zhang Rui, Expert in Digital Transformation of the Healthcare Industry; Yan Guowei, Founder of Qingyun Technology; Yu Junfeng, VP and Head of Medical Business Unit at Jingli Technology; Lu Weiming, Co-founder of Wanmu Health; Qiao Minghui, Founder and CEO of Yuemi Technology; Wu Youran, Head of Digital Health and Media Communications at Pragmatic Biosciences; Ding Zhaoliang, Founder and CEO of Knowledge Matrix; Mr. Fan Yu, Chief Business Officer of Huimei Digital Technology; Dong Qing, Vice President of Pharmaceutical Marketing Department at Hua Medicine; and Zhang Jiaqing, Vice President of Shanghai Pharma Great Health Cloud Commerce Co., Ltd.

Guests delivered speeches on topics such as innovation, development, and future trends in digital marketing for pharmaceutical companies. VCBeat’s VB100 has compiled the highlights of their insightful perspectives.

Fan Xiaoyu: Release of the "2023 Research Report on the Digital Marketing Industry in Pharmaceuticals"

Fan Xiaoyu | Senior Researcher, VCBeat

Fan Xiaoyu, Senior Researcher at VCBeat Institute, pointed out that supported by multi-dimensional policies such as national centralized procurement, the “essential” status of digital marketing is gradually becoming prominent, with leading positions beginning to emerge in various specialized segments of digital marketing. Fan Xiaoyu analyzed the pain points and solutions of existing models from perspectives centered on physicians and patients, respectively. These include accelerating data infrastructure development on the physician side to transition from digitization to intelligence; and enhancing the accessibility of services and payment options for patients through multiple dimensions, thereby helping patients complete course-based treatments, boosting pharmaceutical sales, and exploring innovative marketing approaches. Meanwhile, Fan Xiaoyu noted that physician-patient collaboration is a trend in digital marketing, while omnichannel marketing will jointly tap into incremental markets for pharmaceutical sales.

Hu Jiapeng: Driving Multi-Channel Out-of-Hospital Growth Through Commercial Insurance and Digitalization

Hu Jiapeng | Head of Commercial Insurance and Payment Innovation, Human Pharma Marketing, Boehringer Ingelheim

Hu Jiapeng, Head of Commercial Health Insurance and Innovative Payment for Boehringer Ingelheim’s Human Pharmaceuticals Division, stated that team building and organizational structure are the critical first steps in rapidly launching integrated digital solutions for out-of-hospital growth. Drawing on the increasingly mature “Hui Min Bao” (city-specific supplementary medical insurance) market, he noted that innovative payment models are becoming increasingly standardized. After comparing the differences between pharmaceutical-to-insurance transitions and pharma-led innovative payment schemes, Hu emphasized that multiple factors, including the enthusiasm of frontline staff, contribute to the success of innovative payment initiatives. Finally, Hu proposed an insurance plan tailored for physicians to help address doctor-patient conflicts; the concept aims to protect physicians’ rights and interests while ensuring that third-party funding is available for patients.

Fan Jing: Digital Marketing Services for the Full Lifecycle of Pharmaceuticals

Fan Jing | Head of the Digital Marketing Department, Pharmaceutical Business Division, JD Health

Fan Jing, Head of the Digital Marketing Department at JD Health’s Pharmaceutical Business Unit, elaborated on the unit’s practices in digital marketing, highlighting that omnichannel digital marketing, attention to the user journey, and closed-loop omnichannel integration are all critical to building digital marketing services covering the entire pharmaceutical lifecycle. Meanwhile, Fan stated that JD Health will leverage innovations in marketing digitalization, with a digital middle platform as its foundation, to cover key areas including insights and strategy, content and creativity, media placement and reach, service and experience, and channels and sales.

Wang Shuai: Innovation in Digital Chronic Disease Management

Wang Shuai | Vice President and Executive Director, MedSci

Mr. Wang Shuai, Vice President and Executive Director of MedSci, delivered a speech centered on “shared decision-making between physicians and patients,” a core element of chronic disease management. Leveraging over a decade of deep expertise in the medical field, a registered user base of 2.9 million physicians, and robust digital-driven capabilities, MedSci has accumulated extensive patient management data, including research on patients’ “knowledge, attitudes, and practices” (KAP). This research provides solid evidence to support shared decision-making in chronic disease care, while marketing solutions based on this model help pharmaceutical products better achieve their Days on Therapy (DOT) goals.

"2023 China Digital Chronic Disease Management Blue Book" Launch Ceremony

From left to right: Zhang Rui | Expert in Digital Transformation of the Healthcare Industry; Zhou Guanhua | Market Research Director, Ipsos Healthcare Team; Fan Jing | Head of Digital Marketing Department, JD Health Pharmaceutical Division; Wang Shuai | Vice President and Executive Director, MedSci.

With the advent of China’s era of longevity and the trend of chronic diseases affecting younger populations, chronic disease management has become a medium- to long-term strategic plan at the national level, with its importance significantly elevated. During the three years of the pandemic, China’s “Internet + Chronic Disease” digital management witnessed unprecedented development. Leveraging advantages such as broad coverage, efficient connectivity between doctors and patients, and convenient service delivery, digital chronic disease management rapidly gained favor among multiple stakeholders, including patients, healthcare providers, and enterprises. How to provide high-quality chronic disease management services to patients while achieving win-win outcomes for participating companies and other relevant parties remains an unavoidable focal point and core issue. In light of this, this Blue Paper reveals the needs and pain points of patients and doctors at various stages of chronic disease management, presents exemplary cases for reference, and offers preliminary insights into future development trends. The “2023 China Digital Chronic Disease Management Blue Paper,” jointly initiated and compiled by Ipsos Consulting, MedSci, JD Health, and Zhang Rui, an expert in digital transformation of the healthcare industry, was officially released at a forum. Zhou Guanhua, Market Research Director of the Ipsos Healthcare team, provided a concise interpretation of the Blue Paper, analyzing the pain points faced during the pre-diagnosis, intra-diagnosis, and post-diagnosis phases from the perspectives of both patients and physicians.

Yan Guowei: Hotspots and Trends in Digital Channel Marketing

Yan Guowei | Founder of Qingyun Technology

Yan Guowei, founder of Qingyun Technology, conducted an analysis from four perspectives: aesthetic cognition in digital marketing, the theoretical framework of digital marketing, specific case studies, and technological hotspots. Yan pointed out that the essence of digital marketing lies in making predictions and decisions, and he believes that AI is poised to contribute to the development of digital marketing channels by enabling the construction of personalized visit plans. Subsequently, Yan presented the theoretical ladder of digital marketing and broke down key metrics such as sales volume, prescription rate, and conversion rate based on marketing outcomes. After sharing cases of hospital listing in regions affected by Volume-Based Procurement (VBP) bid failures, along with online and offline promotion strategies, Yan discussed the application prospects and associated risks of ChatGPT in digital marketing. He emphasized that in the post-ChatGPT era, insight remains the unchanging source of value.

Yu Junfeng: Multi-Touchpoint Follow-Up Effectively Improves Medication Adherence

Yu Junfeng | VP of Jingli Technology, Head of the Medical Business Division

Yu Junfeng, Vice President of Jingli Technology and Head of the Medical Business Division, addressed the long-standing pain points in out-of-hospital patient management by proposing Jingli Technology’s proactive patient management and multi-touchpoint follow-up services. These initiatives aim to promote patients’ adherence to standardized treatment protocols and facilitate effective disease management. Subsequently, Mr. Yu presented specific patient cases, illustrating processes such as multi-touchpoint follow-ups and one-on-one care services for patients and their families through a combination of text, images, and videos. Furthermore, Mr. Yu showcased the design of an iCBT-guided rehabilitation training camp model for high-intensity intervention scenarios. According to data provided by Jingli Technology, scientific patient education and proactive interventions significantly improved patients’ level of disease awareness.

Lu Weiming: A New Paradigm of AIGC in Digital Marketing

Lu Weiming | Co-founder of Wanmu Health

Lu Weiming, Co-founder of Wanmu Health, explained the concept of AIGC from the perspectives of business models, workflows, and application layers. Regarding the practical implementation of AIGC in digital marketing, Lu focused on physician tools and patient education, highlighting how AIGC creates hyper-realistic digital human physicians and builds single-disease MDV databases. Furthermore, AI technology is leveraged to generate massive amounts of medical video and graphic/text content for learning by relevant professionals. Subsequently, Lu presented an introductory video on the FTOD automated patient education system and, drawing on Wanmu Health’s collaborative case studies, shared practical experiences in improving patient adherence, extending days on therapy (DOT), identifying surgical candidates, and empowering public health examination institutions.

Qiao Minghui: A New Model of Data-Driven Integrated Doctor-Patient Management

Qiao Minghui | Founder and CEO of Yuemi Technology

Qiao Minghui, Founder and CEO of Yuemi Technology, elaborated on the core connotations and five key characteristics of data-driven patient-physician integration. He introduced Yuemi Technology’s innovative solution, which centers on patients and collaborates with Sinopharm and various ecosystem partners to build an integrated management closed loop encompassing patients, physicians, pharmaceuticals, and insurance. Qiao then shared Yuemi Technology’s practical experience in managing private-domain patient-physician interactions, pointing out that such private domains serve as the digital foundation for patient-physician integration, enabling efficient connections, scenario-based outreach, and data consolidation. Furthermore, Qiao presented a specific case in which Yuemi Technology helped a pharmaceutical company establish a data-driven patient-physician integration system by injecting data capabilities and industry resources, thereby achieving prescription circulation and an innovative payment closed loop. It is reported that Yuemi Technology has currently formed deep partnerships with over 500 pharmaceutical promotion teams and provided in-depth services to more than 150 pharmaceutical and medical device companies. In key therapeutic areas such as oncology, autoimmune diseases, and dermatology, the company has bridged online and offline channels to facilitate patient-physician connectivity and the development and coordination of integrated patient-physician care, significantly enhancing marketing efficiency while reducing costs.

Wu Youran: KOP Pioneers a New Landscape in Healthcare Content Marketing

Wu Youran | Head of Digital Health and Media Communications, Purui Life Sciences

Wu Youran, Head of Digital Health and Media Communications at Purui Life Sciences, drew inspiration from the education sector, asserting that shaping perceptions and guiding trust form the foundation of a closed-loop marketing strategy. Meanwhile, through press release content and account testing, Wu Youran and his team discovered that the influence of Key Opinion Patients (KOPs) is comparable to that of physicians. In this regard, Wu Youran pointed out that KOPs can drive a renaissance in patient education content and are poised to facilitate reforms in doctor-patient trust relationships. Finally, Wu Youran concluded that in the process of expanding medical and health content marketing, KOPs can help achieve a closed-loop connection from content to brand equity.

Ding Zhaoliang: Precision Marketing in Pharmaceutical New Media and IP Collaboration Practices

Ding Zhaoliang | Founder and CEO, Knowledge Matrix

Ding Zhaoliang, Founder and CEO of Knowledge Matrix, began by analyzing the rise of the younger generation and the penetration of technology, pointing out that traffic driven by short videos and live streaming will experience long-term growth. He highlighted that short videos are characterized by high exposure, precise targeting, authentic content, and strong user trust. It is reported that, leveraging this trend and new media platforms, Knowledge Matrix produced over 30,000 videos in 2022 focused on precise specialty-specific diseases and medical science popularization, achieving an annual playback volume of 5 billion. Ding Zhaoliang stated that next-generation content is no longer merely cold, factual science communication; instead, it represents a new presentation style that combines humanization with scientific rigor, all built on a foundation of trust.

Expert Roundtable: How to Grasp User Needs and Measure the Effectiveness of Digital Marketing?

From left to right: Fan Yu | Chief Business Officer, Huimei Digital Technology; Dong Qing | Vice President, Pharmaceutical Marketing Department, Hua Medicine; Fan Jing | Head of Digital Marketing Department, Pharmaceutical Business Unit, JD Health; Wang Shuai | Vice President and Executive Director, MedSci; Zhang Jiaqing | Vice President, Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Healthcare Cloud Commerce Co., Ltd.

Currently, the digital marketing sector within China’s pharmaceutical industry remains in its early stages. The outcomes of digital marketing initiatives often fall short of expectations, and the efficiency of information dissemination and communication with prescribing physicians via digital tools still requires improvement. It is difficult to accurately assess the return on investment (ROI) from digital spending or the tangible value generated by converting advertising into traffic. Mr. Fan Yu, Chief Commercial Officer of Huimei Digital Technology, who closely monitors developments in the field of digital marketing, served as the roundtable moderator and led discussions with the participating guests.

Zhang Jiaqing, Vice President of Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Healthcare and Cloud Commerce Co., Ltd.

Specialty pharmacies focusing on full-lifecycle services for innovative drugs, with Shanghai Pharma Cloud Health as an example, center their digitalization efforts on promoting rational medication use among patients. This includes leveraging digital tools to recruit patients during the clinical stage and providing investigational medicinal products for clinical trials. During the post-launch phase, in addition to offering pharmaceutical companies precise marketing solutions and collecting medication usage data, we serve as China’s largest comprehensive provider of charitable assistance programs, enhancing the accessibility of innovative drugs through various innovative payment mechanisms. Currently, over 6 million active patients on our platform are primarily integrated into the Yiyao ecosystem through digital channels such as internet hospitals, O2O services, patient communities, patient benefit distribution, and innovative payment insurance schemes. While we emphasize digitalization, its core application remains firmly rooted in pharmaceuticals.

Wang Shuai, Vice President and Executive Director of MedSci

Many new products gain early market approval, making large-scale post-marketing studies—such as real-world studies and key monitoring—a top priority. Centered on the launch phase, we provide customized digital solutions, including physician platform solutions, real-world study solutions, and omnichannel precision marketing solutions. Digital empowerment has become a critical element for pharmaceutical and healthcare companies to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and achieve rapid growth. Leveraging its extensive physician platform, MedSci empowers pharmaceutical and medical device companies with omnichannel precision marketing. With its professional medical services team, MedSci supports post-marketing digital clinical research and provides medical affairs services for these companies.

Dong Qing, Vice President of the Marketing Department at Hua Medicine

Patients’ growing familiarity with self-diagnosis and self-treatment has, in effect, accelerated the acceptance of internet-based healthcare models and digital pharmaceutical marketing. Ultimately, however, adoption hinges on the therapeutic benefits delivered by the medication itself—that is, its proven clinical efficacy. Throughout the product’s commercialization journey, we aim to collaborate closely with all specialized digital marketing teams, starting from the product itself, to effectively address the needs of both physicians and patients. Our goal is to provide protective effects against vascular lesions in both large and small blood vessels, with the ultimate aspiration that patients with diabetes can discontinue medication. This is our expectation.

Fan Jing, Head of the Digital Marketing Department, Pharmaceutical Business Division, JD Health

Digital marketing serves as a critical vehicle for extending into the core of healthcare services. Based on recent practices, leveraging our comprehensive ecosystem capabilities and resource advantages, we provide solution-oriented innovative health management experiences for patients through single-disease management. For physicians, we offer a diverse suite of digital tools for learning, clinical practice, management, and research, thereby deepening the synergy among medical care, education, and research. By enhancing not only transactional efficiency but also overall industry efficiency, we have effectively generated incremental growth across the entire ecosystem for our partners through digital marketing.

Measuring the effectiveness of digital marketing in pharmaceutical companies remains a significant challenge. As the digital ecosystem becomes increasingly integrated—connecting patients, healthcare providers, and pharmaceutical firms—the accumulation of data will enable more precise evaluation and more accurate performance measurement.