Structural Shifts in Patient Healthcare, Medication, and Payment Scenarios: Konlink Technologies and CStone Pharmaceuticals Enhance Drug Accessibility Through Strategic Collaboration

Amid the rapid development of healthcare cost containment, volume-based procurement, and digital health, structural changes are reshaping patient scenarios for medical consultation, medication use, and payment. Medication-use scenarios are shifting from in-hospital to out-of-hospital settings and from offline to online channels.

To improve patient access to newly launched and specialty drugs, pharmaceutical companies are actively collaborating with commercial health insurers and internet-based enterprises to provide more reliable healthcare services and pharmaceutical coverage. In this context,Companies capable of covering the three major scenarios—medical consultation, medication, and payment—have become preferred partners for numerous pharmaceutical companies.

April 27, 2021,Beijing Yuanxin Technology Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Yuanxin Technology Group”) and CStone Pharmaceuticals held a strategic cooperation signing ceremony in Shanghai.Following the signing of this agreement, Yuanxin Technology Group will deploy CStone Pharmaceuticals’ two drugs, Ayvakit® (avatinitib tablets) and Gavreto® (pralsetinib capsules), across more than 200 hospital-adjacent pharmacies and its self-operated DTP pharmacies nationwide in China. The group will provide sales channels and medication management services to enhance drug accessibility and patient adherence.

In the future,Yuanxin Technology Group and CStone Pharmaceuticals will further collaborate in areas such as commercial medical insurance and urban health insurance,Accelerate the promotion of innovative payment solutions through internet technology, and establish a multi-tiered payment security system.Establishing an Innovative Payment System for Novel Oncology Immunotherapy and Precision Medicine Drugs,Improve patients' affordability.

Mr. He Tao, Chairman and CEO of Yuanxin Technology Group, and Ms. Zhao Ping, General Manager of Greater China at CStone Pharmaceuticals, attended the signing ceremony.

In recent years, the country has continuously deepened reforms in the review and approval system for drugs and medical devices, encouraged innovation in new drug research and development, significantly accelerated the approval process for new drugs, fostered vigorous growth in China’s biopharmaceutical industry, and seen a gradual increase in the number of innovative drugs launched on the market.

Notably, in the first quarter of 2021, the approval pace for innovative drugs further accelerated. According to the drug approval certificates issued by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), a total of 27 new drugs were approved for marketing in China during this period, including Taygiba® (avatinitib tablets) and Pugihua® (pralsetinib capsules) developed by CStone Pharmaceuticals.Gavreto® (pralsetinib capsules) is the first selective RET inhibitor approved for marketing in China, and Ayvakit® (avataprinib tablets) is the first precision therapy drug approved in China for PDGFRA exon 18-mutant GIST.

Although China’s innovative drug market continues to improve, with an increasing number of innovative drugs being approved,Constrained by drug accessibility and health insurance policies, many innovative drugs can only reach a small fraction of patients after approval and market launch; the problems of patients being unable to obtain or afford these medications remain prominent.Patients still have significant unmet needs in terms of drug accessibility, payment accessibility, service accessibility, and medication adherence.

How to Solve the “Last Mile” Problem in Patient Medication Access? As the separation of prescribing and dispensing advances, hospital-adjacent pharmacies and Direct-to-Patient (DTP) pharmacies have undoubtedly become the primary sales channels for newly launched innovative drugs.

According to He Tao, Chairman and CEO of Yuanxin Technology Group, the company is a comprehensive service platform in China for medical consultations, medication, and payment. In the context of medication use,It operates over 200 hospital-adjacent pharmacies and DTP self-operated pharmacies, supported by a pharmaceutical care team of more than 300 professionals. Its services cover more than 370 Grade A tertiary hospitals across over 80 cities in China, providing patients with medication delivery and pharmaceutical care services.

Furthermore, Yuanxin Technology Group has completed the construction and operation of internet hospitals for more than 200 physical hospitals across China. Leveraging its internet hospital platform, Yuanxin Technology Group connects hospital-adjacent pharmacies and Direct-to-Patient (DTP) pharmacies with doctors and patients. By capitalizing on physicians’ brand reputation to attract patients, the company facilitates online clinical consultations and enables doctors on the platform to manage patients remotely through DTP pharmacies, thereby enhancing diagnostic and treatment efficiency.

Leveraging its accumulated advantages in medication and healthcare scenarios, Yuanxin Technology Group can precisely identify patients' health protection needs, providing them with refined medication management services, follow-up services, and drug delivery services to enhance patient stickiness and improve drug accessibility.Currently, Yuanxin Pharmacy has become a key channel for pharmaceutical companies to sell innovative drugs, with service coverage of over 26,000 types of medicines, including more than 300 types of innovative and specialty drugs.Deepen service capabilities in departments such as oncology, hematology, dermatology, hepatology and nephrology, rheumatology, psychosomatic medicine, reproductive health, and andrology. With extensive case studies in the field of anti-tumor drugs, we have helped numerous pharmaceutical companies accelerate their out-of-hospital layout for prescription drug sales.

In addition to collaborating on medication usage scenarios, Yuanxin Technology Group and CStone Pharmaceuticals will explore further cooperation in innovative payment solutions.

Payment remains a major constraint on the development of the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry. As China continues to reform its medical expense payment landscape by implementing diversified, composite payment models and settlement management mechanisms, innovative payment solutions such as commercial health insurance and city-specific supplemental insurance will assume increasingly important roles.

Innovative payment models offer two major advantages. From the perspective of the current structure of healthcare expenditure, integrating medical insurance, commercial insurance, and pharmaceutical companies’ charitable programs can establish a new payment framework, create innovative payment channels, and optimize the structure of healthcare spending. In terms of medication demand, innovative payment models can leverage real-world evidence generated after patients use medications to transform uncertain, high-cost medical expenses into manageable, small-scale insurance premiums. This approach reduces the financial burden on patients, encourages active treatment adherence, and improves drug accessibility.

Pharmaceutical companies and insurers are increasingly willing to collaborate on innovative healthcare payment solutions to improve the accessibility of innovative drugs and enhance patients’ ability to pay.

As a comprehensive commercial insurance service provider,Yuanxin Huibao analyzes patient treatment and medication data to collaborate with insurance companies in launching more precise and higher-quality insurance coverage services. This initiative addresses patients’ payment challenges for high-cost specialty drugs while providing targeted health management services. Currently, its specialty drug services cover over 30 million people.

Yuanxin Huibao has accumulated extensive experience in innovative payment models, initiating and participating in multiple related projects. For instance, on March 22, 2021, Yuanxin Huibao joined forces with several enterprises to launch the “Love Relay – Chenghuibao” medical assistance public welfare project. On March 10, 2021, “Jincheng · Huiyibao” was officially launched, with Yuanxin Huibao providing an integrated solution that included specialized drug services, value-added health management services, technical support, and operational services. On January 20, 2021, “Xihu Yilianbao” was successfully introduced, leveraging Yuanxin Technology Group’s robust resources and drug supply capabilities in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors to deliver professional specialized drug services for the “Xihu Yilianbao” product.

In the future, Yuanxin Huibao will collaborate with CStone Pharmaceuticals to develop innovative payment solutions., by innovating payment channels and establishing a multi-tiered payment security system to reduce the financial burden on patients.At that time, Yuanxin Technology Group and CStone Pharmaceuticals will provide comprehensive protection for patients, ranging from medication services to commercial insurance.

Zhao Ping, General Manager of CStone Pharmaceuticals China, stated, “While continuously refining and scaling our commercial operations team, CStone Pharmaceuticals is committed to integrating multi-party resources and co-building an innovative drug ecosystem to provide patients with professional and affordable medical services. We look forward to this strategic cooperation with Yuanxin Technology Group in medical services and innovative payment models, aiming to deliver high-quality treatment plans, stable drug supply channels, and professional medication guidance services, thereby comprehensively enhancing the accessibility of innovative drugs and enabling global leading innovative therapies to benefit more Chinese patients as soon as possible.”