Digital Empowerment, Collaboration First: Novartis China Biome Launches with Strategic Partnership on Integrated Digital Care Model
(Shanghai, China, November 6, 2020) – Today, Novartis Pharmaceuticals (China) announced the full launch of its China Commercial Innovation Alliance, Biome. This strategic initiative aims to break down industry boundaries and accelerate the implementation of innovative digital healthcare solutions in collaboration with partners across China. It supports Novartis’s goal of doubling its speed, reaching twice as many patients, and significantly enhancing patient satisfaction, thereby jointly envisioning the future of medicine.
Novartis China Business Innovation Alliance Biome Officially Launched
As Biome’s inaugural project in China, Novartis Pharmaceuticals (China) and WeDoctor Group signed a strategic cooperation memorandum at the third China International Import Expo (CIIE), aiming to join forces to explore big data-enabled innovations and digital health management models. The two parties will focus on ankylosing spondylitis, a rheumatic and immune-mediated disease urgently needing social attention, as their initial specialty area. By leveraging innovative digital solutions to address current challenges in long-term treatment and disease management, they seek to provide more patients with timely, professional, comprehensive, and whole-course health services. This initiative aims to establish a “specialty-integrated diagnosis and treatment” model tailored to China, explore the concept of a “Specialty Health Consortium,” and lay the foundation for broader future collaboration.
Ms. Gail Seymour, Head of the Immunology, Hepatology, Dermatology, and Respiratory Business Unit at Novartis Pharmaceuticals (China), and Ms. Ding Haihuan, Senior Vice President of WeDoctor Group, Signed a Memorandum of Strategic Cooperation
Novartis aims to become a digitally driven, global leader in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, as well as the preferred partner within the medical ecosystem. To this end, Novartis has launched a series of forward-looking digital initiatives worldwide, actively integrating into the digital healthcare ecosystem. By leveraging emerging tools such as digital technologies, big data applications, and artificial intelligence, the company is accelerating drug research and development, enhancing operational efficiency, and promoting comprehensive disease management throughout the entire care journey. Since 2018, the Novartis Group has established Biome, a global commercial innovation alliance, which has forged close collaborations with a wide range of technology enterprises and academic institutions across various countries and regions, including Silicon Valley in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Mr. Bertrand Bodson, Global Chief Digital Officer of Novartisstated: “We are committed to addressing the most urgent challenges in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, which can only be achieved through cutting-edge science and technology. Novartis Biome aims to leverage collaborative partnerships that bring together top-tier technological resources and multidisciplinary expertise from countries and regions around the world, enabling mutual empowerment to deliver more valuable and impactful healthcare solutions for physicians and patients.”
The COVID-19 pandemic that swept the globe in 2020 has underscored the practical significance and importance of this strategy, while also significantly accelerating the digital transformation of the global healthcare industry. As one of the most important and digitally innovative healthcare markets worldwide, China is undergoing unprecedented changes with immense potential.
In this regard,Ms. Zhang Ying, President of Novartis Pharmaceuticals (China)He stated, “China is at the forefront of global digital transformation, with the pandemic serving as a catalyst for digital change and transition in the healthcare industry. We firmly believe that digitization is a key lever for optimizing whole-course patient management, enhancing patients’ healthcare experience, and improving long-term disease management. This collaboration with WeDoctor integrates Novartis’s accumulated expertise in medical science and patient insights with WeDoctor’s strengths in digital technology and ecosystem connectivity. We are confident that our partnership will achieve significant outcomes, creating health and well-being for patients across China.”
Address by Ms. Zhang Ying, President of Novartis Pharmaceuticals (China)
This time, Novartis Pharmaceuticals and WeDoctor Group will take “ankylosing spondylitis,” a common rheumatic and immune disease, as the first specialized disease area to focus on. Starting from the actual pain points faced by patients, they will deeply explore the underlying causes and provide digital solutions, creating a “specialized disease integrated diagnosis and treatment” model that meets the needs of Chinese patients, and exploring the concept of a “specialized disease health consortium.”
Ms. Ding Haihuan, Senior Vice President of WeDoctor GroupHe stated, “The core of the ‘Specialized Disease Healthcare Consortium’ initiative is to enhance service efficiency by delving deeply and thoroughly into individual disease categories, thereby building core competencies on a disease-by-disease basis. We aim to leverage big data services across the entire care continuum—including prevention, diagnosis, treatment, medication management, diet, and exercise—not only to help patients find suitable physicians more efficiently but also to foster stronger doctor-patient relationships. This ensures that patients continue to have access to medical consultation after leaving the clinic, while physicians have evidence-based references to follow up on post-visit. We hope to collaborate with industry partners such as Novartis to truly address the challenges of long-term and chronic disease management through cloud-based solutions, allowing an invisible yet highly efficient digital health ‘network’ to permeate patients’ daily lives.”
Address by Ms. Ding Haihuan, Senior Vice President of WeDoctor Group
This Strategic Cooperation Memorandum focuses on collaborative efforts in integrated online diagnosis and treatment management for specific diseases, data-driven customized disease early warning systems, innovative visualization of therapeutic outcomes, and joint exploration to expand the boundaries of a new social healthcare ecosystem. The signing of this memorandum marks only the first step in the long-term partnership between the two parties. In the future, both sides will further extend their successful model to multiple disease areas, including cardiovascular diseases, to benefit more patients and drive substantial progress in China’s healthcare industry.
Novartis is reimagining the future of medicine to improve people’s quality of life and extend human longevity. As a globally renowned pharmaceutical and healthcare company, we leverage innovative science and digital technologies to create transformative treatments in areas with growing medical needs. In our pursuit of new medicines, we remain committed to continuous innovation, maintaining one of the highest levels of R&D investment in the global industry. Worldwide, nearly 800 million patients benefit from Novartis products, and we continue to explore innovative approaches to bring our breakthrough therapies to even more patients. Novartis employs approximately 110,000 people from over 145 countries around the globe.
“Novartis,” whose Chinese name signifies “A Commitment to China,” is dedicated to improving the health and quality of life of the Chinese people through continuously innovative products and services. Novartis’s operations in China encompass Novartis Oncology, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, and Sandoz. The company has established two major manufacturing bases across the country and set up R&D centers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Jiangsu. From research and development to production and sales, Novartis serves the health needs of the Chinese public with a diversified business portfolio. Currently, Novartis employs more than 8,000 people in China.
WeDoctor is a globally leading intelligent digital health platform dedicated to advancing the digitalization and intelligence of China’s healthcare industry through innovation and technology, thereby providing high-quality, efficient, and accessible healthcare services to society. Its core business spans medical care, pharmaceuticals, medical testing, and health insurance, making it the only digital health platform in the industry to cover the entire “Internet + Healthcare” value chain. In the Global Digital Health 150 list published by the renowned U.S. data intelligence firm CB Insights, WeDoctor was recognized as the unicorn company with the highest public valuation for two consecutive years in 2019 and 2020.
In 2015, WeDoctor established China’s first internet hospital—the Wuzhen Internet Hospital—pioneering new business models such as online diagnosis and treatment, prescription circulation, and online medical insurance payments. As of June 2020, WeDoctor operated 12 physical medical institutions and 27 internet hospitals, connecting more than 7,200 hospitals, over 250,000 physicians, and more than 210 million users across China.
Currently, WeDoctor is extensively piloting “Specialty Disease Health Consortia” across China. Leveraging a digital platform, it integrates supply-side resources such as chronic disease management services. Through standardized diagnosis and treatment systems and specialty disease management tools, it provides insurance-covered specialty disease (including chronic disease) services to residents in cities, counties, townships, and villages. This initiative effectively enhances regional disease management capabilities, improves disease awareness and treatment rates, reduces complications, and substantially alleviates the financial burden on local medical insurance funds and patients’ out-of-pocket expenses for medical care and medications.