24-Hour Direct-to-Patient Delivery: Internet Hospitals Provide Access to Advanced Therapies and Innovative Medicines
On the morning of May 1, Mr. Li, a resident of Beichen District in Tianjin, received his medication via home delivery. The 65-year-old patient has suffered from reflux esophagitis for many years. Due to difficulties in leaving his home, he opted for an online follow-up consultation through an internet hospital. After thoroughly assessing his condition, the physician prescribed Voquezna® (vonoprazan fumarate tablets), a novel acid-suppressing drug recently introduced to the Chinese market by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company.
What Mr. Li did not know was that he had become the first patient to use the drug after its approval and market launch in China. When he received the medication via courier, it had been less than 24 hours since he completed his online follow-up consultation and purchased the prescription through an internet hospital.
Takeda Pharmaceutical’s Decision to Launch New Drug on Internet Hospital Draws Industry AttentionA representative from Takeda China stated that internet hospitals offer the advantages of remote access, professionalism, and convenience. During the recent pandemic, they effectively closed the service loop, enabling patients in need to access the latest medications promptly and benefit from a broader range of treatment options.
Traditionally, the launch of new drugs requires going through processes such as provincial and municipal centralized bidding and procurement, meaning patients often have to wait months or even years to access these medications. However, internet hospitals can significantly shorten this timeline.
More importantly, by leveraging digital platforms, internet hospitals enable physicians to provide proactive, continuous, and standardized patient management, effectively tracking and providing feedback on patients’ medication responses and outcomes. This will significantly enhance the efficiency of innovative drug research and development for pharmaceutical manufacturers, thereby benefiting a larger patient population.
As the founder of China’s first internet hospital, WeDoctor established the Wuzhen Internet Hospital in 2015, pioneering a full-process closed-loop service that includes online follow-up consultations, prescription circulation, online medical insurance payment, and medication delivery. It has continuously promoted the large-scale implementation and operation of this new business model across China, extensively connecting supply-side resources such as medical institutions at all levels and physicians, and rapidly developing into WeDoctor General Internet Hospital, a platform-based internet hospital with a leading national scale. As of April 2020, WeDoctor General Internet Hospital operated 12 physical medical institutions and 21 internet hospitals, connected more than 3,200 hospitals nationwide, engaged over 400,000 physicians, and served 212 million real-name registered users, accumulating nearly 1 billion patient visits.
Ding Haihuan, Senior Vice President of WeDoctor Group, stated that WeDoctor Internet Hospital has always been committed to providing users with safe and convenient one-stop medical and health services. Going forward, WeDoctor will continue to leverage the professional advantages of its digital health platform, actively introduce the most advanced treatment solutions, and better meet the health needs of the Chinese people.