"Soaring to the Cloud with Decapeptyl, Benefiting All Patients" – Zhixian Health and Ipsen Announce Strategic Collaboration in Specialty Pharmaceutical Therapies

2022Year8Month12Day, Shanghai, Zhiyun Health (9955.HK）andIpsen Group (Euronext: IPN; ADR: IPSEY), a global biopharmaceutical company in the specialty drug sector，Joint AnnouncementStrategic Cooperation Agreement Reached，and held a signing ceremony for the collaboration. Both parties will focus on Diphereline^®, integrating superior resources and forging strategic alliances to support Chinese patients by expanding geographic reach and enhancing the precision of medical services.

Diphereline^®It is an agonist analog of natural gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). As an original drug developed by the Ipsen Group, this product is currently sold in more than 80 countries worldwide for the treatment of conditions such as prostate cancer, central precocious puberty in children, assisted reproduction, and endometriosis. The collaboration between the two parties will leverage the years of experience with Diphereline^®Leveraging its strong foundation in the Chinese market and Zhiyun Health’s offline reach capabilities to further promote comprehensive coverage of Diphereline products in China, thereby better benefiting Chinese patients.

Kuang Ming, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Zhiyun Health, stated, “The interconnected digital health management service ecosystem effectively breaks down temporal and spatial barriers, enabling more precise connection and matching among healthcare providers, patients, and pharmaceuticals. This enhances the accessibility, accuracy, and safety of medication use, allowing patients to receive more precise medical services. Deeply rooted in the field of digital chronic disease management, Zhiyun Health remains patient-centric and is committed to bringing digital health into households across China. Through this collaboration with Ipsen, Zhiyun Health will leverage its robust online and offline reach and mature operational expertise to expand its chronic disease management portfolio into the oncology sector, thereby providing patients with more convenient and efficient medical services and improving their quality of life.”

Guillaume DELMOTTE, General Manager of Ipsen China, stated, “We are delighted to establish a partnership with Zhiyun Health today. Ipsen’s vision is to lead the development of highly specific and innovative therapies for diseases with unmet treatment needs in the fields of oncology, rare diseases, and neuroscience. To realize this vision, we are committed to implementing our group strategy under the guiding principles of ‘focus, win-win collaboration, and serving patients and society.’ Through our collaboration with Zhiyun Health, I am confident that we will successfully improve the accessibility of innovative products, bringing greater benefits to more patients in China.”

Ipsen has always made serving patients and society, as well as advancing the development of medical services, its core corporate strategy. Zhiyun Health is an innovative and socially responsible enterprise. This strategic partnership will further enable Ipsen’s flagship product, Diphereline®, to better serve patients, while providing positive feedback and setting a benchmark for digital innovation in pharmaceutical service models within the industry, thereby creating greater benefits for both healthcare providers and patients.

In recent years, with continuous innovations and breakthroughs in diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities as well as treatment regimens, cancer has become one of the chronic diseases. The five-year survival rate for cancer patients is steadily increasing, making it increasingly important to provide whole-course health management services. According to reports from the 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, compared with conventional medical service processes, the additional provision of whole-course health management services can reduce treatment costs by 21.4% and lower the risk of death by 38% in patients with advanced-stage cancer.

As the “Chinese model” for digital chronic disease management, Zhiyun Health provides patients with full-lifecycle digital chronic disease management services that span both in-hospital and out-of-hospital settings, as well as online and offline channels, a approach already validated by the market. As of March 31, 2022, Zhiyun Health had partnered with nearly 10,000 hospitals, providing SaaS services to more than 2,400 hospitals and nearly 180,000 pharmacies across China. Its services covered all 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government, with over 25 million registered users and more than 150 million annual service encounters. Zhiyun Health has expanded its chronic disease portfolio into the oncology sector. In the future, it aims to explore and establish a whole-course health management service model designed to improve treatment outcomes for cancer patients, enhance the efficiency of diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation management, alleviate the financial burden associated with cancer therapy, and ultimately improve the quality of life for cancer patients.

Ipsen Group was founded in 1929 and has a history of over 90 years, evolving from a family-owned business into a publicly listed group. As a global biopharmaceutical company, Ipsen focuses on transformative medicines in the fields of oncology, rare diseases, and neuroscience. The Group markets more than 20 products, with a sales network spanning over 110 countries worldwide, including direct commercial operations in 30 of these countries. Currently, Ipsen employs approximately 5,700 people globally, operating four R&D centers and eight manufacturing sites. We are committed to extending patients’ lives and improving their quality of life. In 2021, Ipsen’s total sales exceeded €2.9 billion.

Ipsen Group entered China in 1992 and established an Innovation Center in Shanghai in 2019, which is one of its four global R&D centers. Ipsen Specialty Care established its China headquarters in Shanghai in 2021, focusing on oncology, rare diseases, and neuroscience. Working in tandem with the Innovation Center, it continues to introduce innovative treatment solutions to address the urgent therapeutic needs of patients in China.

Founded in 2014, Zhiyun Health is a leading provider of digital chronic disease management solutions in China, dedicated to creating a “Chinese model” for digital chronic disease management and bringing digital health into millions of households. Adhering to technological and business model innovation, the company collaborates with key stakeholders across the medical value chain—including hospitals, pharmacies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, insurance providers, patients, and physicians—to jointly build a robust, closed-loop ecosystem. It provides in-hospital solutions, pharmacy solutions, and personal chronic disease management solutions, covering the full lifecycle of digital chronic disease management both inside and outside hospitals, as well as online and offline.