WeDoctor's Digital Health Community Offers Ultimate Solution for China's Pharmaceutical Industry Digital Transformation

Following the initial implementation of the national “4+7” drug centralized procurement in March, the second round of expanded volume-based procurement for drugs, led by the National Healthcare Security Administration, has recently concluded. This joint procurement resulted in 45 companies provisionally selected as winners and 60 products provisionally awarded. Winning bid prices have further declined, with an average reduction of 59% compared to the lowest procurement prices in alliance regions in 2018, and an average decrease of 25% relative to the winning price levels from the “4+7” pilot program, significantly squeezing pharmaceutical companies’ profit margins once again. As competition in centralized procurement intensifies, under the backdrop of new healthcare reforms, most pharmaceutical enterprises now face the critical challenge of leveraging digital opportunities to upgrade and transform, harnessing external momentum to establish efficient, low-cost pharmaceutical marketing models and build absolute market competitiveness.

From October 9 to 10, the 2019 China Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs, Scientists, and Investors Conference, co-hosted by the China Association of Pharmaceutical Enterprise Management and the China Medicine Biotechnology Association, was held at the Yanqi Lake International Convention & Exhibition Center in Beijing. Ding Haihuan, Senior Vice President of WeDoctor and CEO of Weiyiyao, attended the conference and delivered a keynote speech at the main forum, sharing insights on the digital opportunities within the trillion-yuan pharmaceutical industry in the new era with over 2,000 attendees. The digital solutions presented by WeDoctor sparked enthusiastic responses, with participants noting that they would have an explosive impact on the development of China’s pharmaceutical industry and even the broader digital health sector.

In the global digital era, China is becoming fertile ground for the international digital health industry, with digital health platforms emerging as a new engine for China’s healthcare reform. It is projected that China’s health and wellness industry will reach RMB 450 billion by 2020. In his speech, Ding Haihuan stated, “The implementation of new national policies, such as medical insurance cost containment and volume-based procurement, poses significant challenges to both domestic and foreign pharmaceutical companies, but also brings unprecedented opportunities for the high-quality transformation of China’s pharmaceutical industry. Fully leveraging technology-driven digital health platforms will help pharmaceutical enterprises rapidly transform amid the short-term pains associated with these policy changes.”

As an internationally leading digital health platform, WeDoctor has persisted in deep exploration within the digital healthcare sector since its establishment nine years ago. Its pioneering concept of the “Digital Health Community” is being implemented and flourishing across China. Currently, the WeDoctor platform has connected 2,700 key medical institutions and 290,000 doctors nationwide. It has signed cooperation agreements on Digital Health Communities with multiple provinces and cities, including Pingdingshan in Henan Province; Tai’an in Shandong Province; Xiamen, Longyan, and Nanping in Fujian Province; Huanggang in Hubei Province; and Yinchuan in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Covering a population of over 100 million, WeDoctor is assisting local governments in these regions to build resident-health-centered digital service networks.

It is understood that the WeDoctor Digital Health Community project is health-centric and supported by a digital platform. It integrates supply-side resources for chronic disease services to establish a disease prevention and control system featuring “online + offline” integration, connectivity across city, county, township, and village levels, and interoperability among medical services, pharmaceuticals, and health insurance. Online, it will create dedicated zones for specific diseases and close the loop on internet-based diagnosis and treatment services. Offline, in collaboration with local health communities, it will provide insurance-covered services for specific diseases (including chronic conditions) to residents at the city, county, township, and village levels. This initiative aims to effectively enhance regional disease management, improve disease awareness and treatment rates, reduce complications, and substantially alleviate the financial burden on local health insurance funds and patients’ medical and medication expenses.

Currently, the WeDoctor Digital Health Platform has become the preferred solution for large pharmaceutical companies such as Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca, and BeiGene to achieve high-quality innovative transformation in the Chinese market. It is reported that through WeDoctor’s mature digital platform, pharmaceutical companies can focus on their advantageous product categories and maximize their market share in these areas, thereby achieving absolute leadership through scale efficiency. Secondly, by collaboratively building specialized disease management communities that directly connect hospitals, physicians, and patients, the platform can efficiently assist doctors and patients in precisely combating diseases and maintaining health. Furthermore, pharmaceutical companies can leverage big data analytics on “diseases and medications” to accurately determine R&D directions, recruit physicians and patients with high efficiency and low cost, and advance CRO clinical trials for innovative new drugs. At the same time, by establishing a C2M (Consumer-to-Manufacturer) production and sales system for pharmaceuticals based on the digital platform, the initiative promotes the creation of a precise and efficient digital R&D and production center driven by “production determined by sales.”

According to VCBeat, WeDoctor has partnered with the China Health Promotion Foundation, a national public welfare fundraising organization under the administration of the National Health Commission. Leveraging its experience and industry resources in health promotion, internet hospitals, health communities, and chronic disease prevention and control, WeDoctor will join forces with local governments, medical insurance departments, healthcare institutions, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, and other industry partners to jointly launch the “Specialized Disease Health Community.” The initiative is scheduled to be officially unveiled at the 6th World Internet Conference on October 20, 2019.

At the conference, WeDoctor was also honored with two prestigious awards: the “Outstanding Contribution Award for Promoting High-Quality Development of the Pharmaceutical Industry” and the “Republic Benchmark Enterprise in the ‘Magnificent 70 Years, Striving in the New Era’ Excellent Enterprise Selection.” According to the organizers, these awards recognize WeDoctor’s exceptional performance and outstanding achievements in advancing high-quality, innovative development in China’s digital health and pharmaceutical sectors. The Outstanding Contribution Award specifically commended WeDoctor’s Haixi Pharmaceutical Trading Platform for its special contributions to exploring and promoting the “Sanming Alliance,” a joint price-capped procurement model for drugs and medical consumables represented by the Sanming healthcare reform, as well as for undertaking the “4+7” volume-based procurement reform.