Exclusive Interview with Lilly China CIO: Three Key Drivers of Digital Innovation in Pharma

Recently, Eli Lilly and Company (China) and Microsoft China held a strategic cooperation signing ceremony and press conference in Shanghai. Both parties announced that, leveraging Lilly’s leading market position and industry insights in the healthcare sector, along with its forward-looking explorations in digital innovation, and combining these with Microsoft’s cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies, cloud computing services, and ecosystem advantages, they will jointly advance extensive collaboration across service, technology, and market domains to create a new industry ecosystem of “AI + Healthcare.”

Julio Gay-Ger, President and General Manager of Eli Lilly China, stated, “Eli Lilly is committed to actively advancing the innovative application of technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing in the healthcare sector. Through our strategic partnership with Microsoft, we aim to explore how technological innovation can empower healthcare, support the implementation of the ‘Healthy China 2030’ Planning Outline, and ultimately benefit a broad patient population.”

Group photo of guests at the signing ceremony for the strategic cooperation between Lilly China and Microsoft China. Photo provided by the company.

Following the press conference, VCBeat (WeChat: vcbeat) conducted an exclusive interview with Mr. Bai Liuchen, Vice President and CIO of the Information Technology Department at Lilly China. He shared insights into Lilly’s initiatives in digital innovation and outlined the direction of the pharmaceutical industry’s transformation driven by digital technologies.

Bai Liuchen, Vice President of the Information Technology Department and CIO at Lilly China. Photo provided by the interviewee

Digital innovation in the pharmaceutical industry has emerged as a key focus for VCBeat in recent times. We have observed that new technologies, represented by artificial intelligence, big data, internet healthcare, and the Internet of Things (IoT), are being applied across all facets of the pharmaceutical sector, reshaping its landscape. Meanwhile, leading pharmaceutical companies are actively embracing these emerging technologies.

Bai Liuchen believes that there are three major external drivers for pharmaceutical companies to actively embrace digital innovation: first, changes in the environment; second, technological advancements; and third, evolving customer demands.

Taking the Chinese market as an example, the entire healthcare landscape has undergone significant changes—from national healthcare reforms to “Internet + Healthcare” and tiered diagnosis and treatment systems. These shifts have imposed new requirements on the role pharmaceutical companies play within the healthcare industry. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing are increasingly being deployed across various sectors, with growing technological maturity; healthcare represents a particularly critical application scenario.

Historically, pharmaceutical companies have played the role of drug providers within the healthcare industry. However, in the new landscape, patients require not merely medications but integrated solutions for disease management, placing higher demands on healthy lifestyle practices, early diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation. Digital innovation has become a critical pathway for pharmaceutical enterprises to adapt to market shifts and meet customer needs.

Driven by the IT department and cross-functional collaboration at Lilly, the company has emerged as a pioneer in the wave of digital transformation. Lilly’s strategic layout in the digital domain has established three key directions: digitization of traditional platform applications, development of proprietary value platforms, and ecosystem partnerships.

In applying digitalization to traditional platforms, the primary objectives are to innovate work methods and enhance operational efficiency. This includes implementing an external eP2P online meeting model and upgrading the physician conference platform, thereby breaking down spatial barriers to academic exchange and significantly improving the efficiency and reach of cutting-edge medical knowledge dissemination. Internally, it supports sales teams in mastering new digital tools to present product-related information in a vivid and intuitive manner, while also leveraging data visualizations such as sales reports to boost work efficiency and user experience.

Regarding the autonomous value platform, a series of innovative initiatives have been launched for patients and physicians. For example:

Patient Portal.Leveraging its expertise and experience in diabetes care, Eli Lilly pioneered the launch of the “Diabetes Heart World” app, an industry-first digital platform for diabetes management. Integrating the internationally recognized “Five Carriages” framework for diabetes care, the app provides patients with daily guidance on exercise, diet, disease management education, and blood glucose monitoring. To date, “Diabetes Heart World” has surpassed 1.4 million downloads, establishing itself as one of the preferred disease management apps among patients with diabetes.

Doctor's End.Lilly has innovatively launched “Li Yi,” a one-stop physician service platform based on WeChat, to facilitate communication, interaction, and service delivery with healthcare professionals. The “Li Yi” platform enables functionalities such as meeting invitations, pre-conference information access, conference check-in, real-time voting, live Q&A sessions, surveys, medical literature search, online consultations, and patient management. Currently, the “Li Yi” platform has been operational for one year, during which it has released 12 version updates, introduced 20 new features, and accumulated over 70,000 users.

In terms of ecosystem collaboration, in late 2017, Eli Lilly joined forces with Tencent and DXY to innovatively create a seamlessly integrated comprehensive diabetes management solution—the “Lilly Care for Diabetes Program (LCCP).” By providing high-quality medications, pioneering technologies, and customized services, the program empowers physicians to optimize diagnosis and treatment while helping patients achieve their therapeutic goals. To date, the program has enrolled 50,000 patients, who have demonstrated significant improvements in glycemic control compared to previous outcomes.

Bai Liuchen divides Lilly China’s digital innovation into three phases: Digital 1.0 involves the application of traditional models; Digital 2.0 focuses on platformization, omnichannel integration, online-offline connectivity, ecosystem building, and strengthening internal digital capabilities; Digital 3.0 entails a deeper and more comprehensive application of AI, big data, and cloud technologies across various domains to provide enhanced support and services both internally and externally.

The collaboration with Microsoft China marks the beginning of Eli Lilly’s Digital Innovation 3.0. Bai Liuchen told VCBeat that potential areas of cooperation between the two parties include: exploring the application of artificial intelligence in medical imaging and disease screening; leveraging technologies such as natural language processing, conversational bots, and knowledge graphs to develop physician engagement services, patient support and education platforms, and employee productivity tools; utilizing natural language processing and machine translation to enhance the richness and timeliness of medical content; and improving employee efficiency through enterprise-level office automation applications. Microsoft Azure will also play a significant role in the implementation of application systems.

Bai Liuchen stated that digital innovation is a multifaceted endeavor, encompassing internal and external collaboration, balancing long-term and short-term outcomes, and evaluating return on investment; it is a matter of having the right timing, favorable conditions, and strong team synergy.

Amidst the wave of digital innovation, IT departments in pharmaceutical companies should assume a more significant role and adopt a more proactive stance. Previously, IT departments may have functioned merely as support units, tasked only with fulfilling existing demands. However, in the context of digital innovation, IT departments should serve as both “catalysts” and “adhesives.” Internally, they should proactively develop capabilities and anticipate needs to drive business and business model innovation, acting as a “catalyst” for change. Externally, they should identify high-quality vendors and partners and closely “bond” with business operations.

“Digital transformation initiatives should not be viewed as a project, but rather as a product—one that can undergo iterative development in response to market demands, technological conditions, and other factors, thereby ensuring long-term viability,” said Bai Liuchen.

Pharmaceutical companies pursuing digital innovation must inevitably consider the issue of return on investment. An excessive focus on short-term gains may constrain strategic direction, while a sole emphasis on long-term benefits may incur prohibitively high opportunity costs. Therefore, it is essential to strike a balance between short- and long-term outcomes, ensuring strategic alignment while adopting a gradual approach to cultivate sustainable competitive advantage.

Enterprises also encounter various challenges in the process of digital innovation, such as those related to internal digital capabilities, talent, and processes. If internal digitalization lags behind while only external digitalization is pursued, the effectiveness of external digital initiatives will soon be compromised. If users do not have a satisfactory experience or fail to obtain what they need, the channel will gradually become obsolete, which poses significant risks. Therefore, coordinated efforts between internal and external aspects are essential in advancing digital transformation. Only by strengthening internal capabilities can enterprises achieve more effective digital transformation.

Talent often plays the most critical role, and high-caliber professionals are in short supply amid the wave of digital transformation sweeping through the industry. Lilly addresses this challenge by building a high-level talent pool through both external recruitment and internal development. This approach not only largely meets the team’s needs for digital innovation but also supplies talent to other business units within the company and to innovation departments in other regions around the world.

Finally, Bai Liuchen stated that digital innovation is not confined to the pharmaceutical industry; across the entire healthcare sector, digital technologies can deliver even greater value. For instance, “Internet + Healthcare” and telemedicine can address issues such as unequal distribution of medical resources and imbalances between supply and demand. AI-assisted diagnosis and treatment can enhance physicians’ efficiency and clinical proficiency while alleviating their burden of tedious, repetitive tasks. Of course, ensuring the convenience and ease of use of digital tools remains a significant challenge.

“Through the joint efforts of both industry insiders and external stakeholders, not only pharmaceutical companies but also healthcare providers and every link in the medical health industry chain can benefit from the application of technology. In the near future, perhaps within the next 5 to 10 years, we will witness transformative changes brought to the industry by digital innovation and AI,” said Bai Liuchen.