WeDoctor and BeiGene Forge Strategic Alliance to Build a Digital Oncology Health Community

On July 21, WeDoctor, China’s largest digital healthcare service platform, signed a strategic cooperation agreement with BeiGene, a renowned innovative pharmaceutical company, to establish the “Oncology Health Community” (hereinafter referred to as the Oncology Health Community). By integrating their respective advantageous resources and exploring new models of collaboration, both parties aim to jointly promote the development of a patient-centric digital Oncology Health Community. They will provide tumor patients with comprehensive, one-stop services covering prevention, diagnosis and treatment, rehabilitation, follow-up, and payment on a per-health-insurance-pooling-area basis, thereby advancing the integrated regional prevention and control of cancer.

Liao Jieyuan, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of WeDoctor Group, and Dr. Wu Xiaobin, President, Chief Operating Officer, and General Manager of China Region at BeiGene, attended the event and delivered speeches. Cheng Yi, Senior Vice President of WeDoctor Group, and Liu Yan, Vice President and Head of Marketing for Greater China at BeiGene, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective companies. Key business leaders from both sides attended the signing ceremony.

WeDoctor and BeiGene Signing Ceremony

The “2017 Annual Report of China’s Cancer Registry” shows that there are approximately 3.8 million new cancer cases and about 2.29 million cancer-related deaths in China each year, with both incidence and mortality rates rising annually, presenting a severe situation for prevention and control. Due to the particular nature of oncological diseases, cancer patients often require long-term hospital follow-up visits. Coupled with the high cost of cancer medications, especially novel and specialized drugs, the economic burden on patients and society as a whole is substantial. In light of this reality, how to build a cancer prevention and treatment “network” that offers better healthcare experiences, reduces financial burdens, and achieves more efficient integration of medical care and prevention has become an imperative question for the government and the industry to address.

As a pioneer and practitioner of the Digital Health Community model, WeDoctor is actively committed to empowering healthcare reform through digitalization, thereby enhancing the accessibility, effectiveness, and affordability of medical services. In the field of oncology, it has established disease-specific health communities and built an integrated platform connecting pharmaceuticals, healthcare providers, and patients with a “patient-centric” approach, empowering the entire industry chain. BeiGene is a science-driven global biotechnology company dedicated to developing innovative and affordable medicines to improve therapeutic outcomes and enhance drug accessibility for patients. In the prevention and control of oncological diseases, both parties share a congruent philosophy of “patients first.”

Under this strategic plan, the two parties will engage in in-depth collaboration to build a nationwide online diagnosis and treatment service platform covering the entire care journey for cancer patients, establish cross-regional expert teams specializing in various cancer types, and develop a platform for precision screening and patient education.

It is understood that prior to the strategic cooperation, WeDoctor and BeiGene had already engaged in productive explorations in the development of an “Oncology Health Consortium.” In April this year, leveraging WeDoctor’s “Special Disease Worry-Free Membership” product designed for members with special chronic conditions such as cancer, the two parties established a supply system for Brukinsa® (zanubrutinib capsules, indicated for the treatment of relapsed/refractory lymphoma and other oncological diseases) in Weifang, Shandong Province, while also providing medication benefits. Furthermore, the Oncology Health Consortium has integrated online follow-up consultations, medical insurance payments, and home delivery of medications for certain types of cancer. This has created a comprehensive “online + offline” service loop covering the three key stages of “early screening, diagnosis, and rehabilitation” for cancer patients, thereby enhancing access to novel and specialized oncology drugs.

Ms. Zhang, a patient with a hematologic disorder, is among the first to benefit from the implementation of the WeDoctor Oncology Healthcare Consortium. Living in Caishi Town, Jinan, Ms. Zhang previously had to travel over 100 kilometers round-trip for hospital follow-up visits. “Each hospital visit used to take more than half a day. Now, I can not only have online follow-up consultations and obtain prescriptions, but also have my expenses reimbursed through medical insurance and medications delivered to my doorstep, while continuously receiving personalized medication guidance from my dedicated physician. It’s incredibly convenient and thoughtful!” Ms. Zhang marveled at the convenience brought by digital healthcare, noting that both the time and financial costs associated with seeking medical care would be significantly reduced.

Currently, leveraging its platform resources, WeDoctor is accelerating the development of the “Oncology Health Community.” WeDoctor operates 27 internet hospitals, more than 30 chronic disease service centers within medical consortia, and mobile hospital services covering 12 provinces and municipalities and 69 counties across China, with 17 of its internet hospitals designated as medical insurance providers. Meanwhile, the WeDoctor platform connects to over 7,800 hospitals, covering more than 95% of China’s Grade A tertiary hospitals, and includes over 270,000 registered physicians, 86% of whom are attending physicians or above.

Liao Jieyuan, Founder, Chairman and CEO of WeDoctor Group

“WeDoctor’s digital platform, which has long cultivated a closed-loop ecosystem integrating ‘medical care, pharmaceuticals, and insurance,’ can establish an efficient, multi-party win-win service system for cancer patients, medical institutions, medical insurance and commercial insurance payers, and pharmaceutical companies,” said Liao Jieyuan in his address. “BeiGene is an innovative pharmaceutical leader rooted in China with a global outlook. By leveraging our respective strengths, we believe we can make innovative drugs accessible to more cancer patients, bringing benefit to patients across China and around the world.”

Dr. Xiaobin Wu, President, Chief Operating Officer, and General Manager of China Region at BeiGene

Dr. Wu Xiaobin also pointed out in his speech, “BeiGene has China’s largest preclinical development team and the largest clinical development team focused on oncology in China. By the end of this year, BeiGene is expected to have 12 commercialized products. WeDoctor’s digital platform demonstrates exceptional capabilities in resource integration. Through this collaboration, we look forward to more precisely matching the supply of innovative drugs with clinical needs, fully leveraging functions such as online medication guidance and drug science popularization, so that these high-quality products can meet clinical demands more quickly and conveniently.”