Yifuzhen Third-Party Prescription Sharing Platform: Establishing the 'Gold Standard' for Out-of-Hospital Prescription Flow Within One Year of Operation

Recently, during the “2018 Annual Conference of China’s Pharmaceutical Retail Industry,” the China Pharmaceutical Commerce Association, together with major national pharmacy chains and Baiyang Pharmaceutical Group, jointly launched the “Initiative for the Standardized Development of Third-Party Prescription Sharing,” to comprehensively promote the lawful, compliant, reasonable, and rational development of prescription outflow.

Meanwhile, the China Pharmaceutical Commerce Association, Baiyang Pharmaceutical Group, and 16 major national pharmacy chains—including Dashenlin, Yixintang, Laobaixing, and Yifeng—jointly signed agreements to establish in-depth cooperation on the YiFuzhen third-party prescription sharing platform and comprehensive smart pharmacy solutions. In the future, hundreds of hospitals and pharmacies across China will achieve interconnectivity and information sharing of prescription data through the YiFuzhen third-party prescription sharing platform.

Multiple Chain Pharmacies Sign with Yifuzhen Third-Party Prescription Sharing Platform (Photo Provided by the Company)

Setting standards and fostering broad collaboration, the establishment of a third-party prescription-sharing platform for easy follow-up visits will further promote the lawful, compliant, and reasonable development of prescription outflow, setting a national benchmark for handling such outflows.

“Separation of pharmaceuticals from healthcare services” is a key component of the new healthcare reform. As policies such as zero markup on drug sales and controls on the proportion of drug expenditures are progressively implemented, drugs are shifting from being a profit center to a cost center for hospitals, thereby driving the outflow of prescriptions. Policy guidelines call for exploring the interconnectivity and real-time sharing of prescription information from medical and health institutions with retail drug consumption data, so as to promote the standardized development of online drug sales and medical logistics distribution.

To accommodate the outflow of prescriptions, the industry has explored various models, such as pharmacy trusteeship, hospital-adjacent pharmacies, Direct-to-Patient (DTP) pharmacies, and prescription information-sharing platforms. However, the former categories have been constrained by issues related to the compliance and orderliness of prescription sources, ease of regulatory oversight, coordinated medical insurance reimbursement, and medication safety. As a result, they have failed to establish effective models and have even been suspended in certain regions. Practice has demonstrated that third-party prescription-sharing platforms can extend prescriptions to outside-hospital settings in a manner that is both compliant and reasonable, representing the best-practice model for prescription outflow.

Ma Guanglei, General Manager of Yi Fuzhen, told VCBeat that the model of separating prescribing from dispensing requires continuous exploration to establish a genuine and secure framework that truly connects hospitals, pharmacies, and patients, while meeting patient needs and complying with regulatory requirements imposed by hospitals and the government. A successful model for separating prescribing from dispensing must adhere to policy regulations and align with the operational rules of hospitals and pharmacies, thereby achieving a win-win outcome for all stakeholders through a step-by-step approach.

Yi Fuzhen, a subsidiary of Baiyang Pharmaceutical Group, launched China’s first third-party prescription sharing platform in Wuzhou, Guangxi, in May 2017, becoming the country’s first implementable pilot project for prescription information sharing.

The model of the third-party prescription sharing platform for easy follow-up visits is as follows: The platform can directly connect to the hospital's Hospital Information System (HIS). During face-to-face consultations, physicians issue prescriptions based on patients' needs and submit them to hospital pharmacists for review. Upon approval, the prescriptions are uploaded directly to the "Prescription Information Sharing Platform." The platform then instantly pushes the prescription information to patients via SMS, enabling patients to freely choose any affiliated pharmacy on the platform to complete their offline medication purchase. The pharmacy verifies the patient's prescription information, prints the prescription, and dispenses the medication.

On November 15, 2017, with the participation of multiple stakeholders, Wuzhou took the lead in implementing prescription information sharing. More than 20 secondary and tertiary hospitals and over 100 pharmacies across the city were integrated into the Yifuzhen third-party prescription sharing platform, fully achieving interconnectivity and real-time sharing of prescription data from medical institutions, medical insurance settlement information, and retail pharmaceutical consumption data.

From Ma Guanglei’s perspective, the various stakeholders in the Yi Fuzhen third-party prescription sharing platform have clearly defined rights and responsibilities, achieving a “win-win” outcome: hospitals provide authentic and reasonable prescriptions, reduce drug operational costs through prescription sharing, and achieve controllable regulation of the “separation of prescribing and dispensing”; pharmacies ensure genuine and rational sales, gain significant incremental volume from prescription outflows, and help build their brands; and the third-party prescription sharing platform provides technical and security support to ensure continuous operations.

During the same period, the Yifuzhen Third-Party Prescription Information Sharing Platform, together with representative industry enterprises, issued a joint initiative. As the representative delivering this initiative to promote the standardized development of third-party prescription sharing, Ruan Hongxian, Chairman of Yunnan Hongxiang Yixintang, stated that prescription sharing should be premised on “compliance,” aimed at “benefiting the public,” and safeguarded by “security.” It is essential to ensure clear delineation of “responsibilities, rights, and interests,” establish multi-party prescription review systems and sales supervision frameworks, and create a traceable regulatory system with open management access for regulatory authorities, thereby ensuring rational and safe medication use for patients.

Yunnan Hongxiang Yixintang Chairman Ruan Hongxian Reads Out the Initiative (Photo Provided by the Company)

The initiative further highlights the need to encourage the establishment of a tripartite prescription information-sharing platform involving medical institutions, health insurance agencies, and retail pharmacies. This would enable patients to use electronic prescriptions issued by hospitals to conveniently purchase medications at retail pharmacies of their choice, while completing real-time reimbursement procedures under the pooled health insurance fund. Such a mechanism facilitates coordinated operations among the three parties: prescribing and prescription review by medical institutions, verification and reimbursement by health insurance agencies, and prescription dispensing and medication distribution by retail pharmacies. By establishing this tripartite information-sharing platform, healthcare resources can be optimized and medical costs reduced; health insurance funds can be conserved, thereby enhancing coverage capacity; and patients’ access to medications can be improved, ensuring medication safety.

Yi Fuzhen, a third-party prescription sharing platform, has established partnerships with multiple pharmacy chains, including publicly listed chains such as Dashenlin, Yixintang, Laobaixing, and Yifeng, as well as regional leaders like Gansu Zhongyou, Shuyu Pingmin, and Xi'an Yikang.

The signatory parties will comprehensively promote the standardized implementation of the Yi Fu Zhen third-party prescription sharing platform across China, enhancing regional medical and health data sharing, prescription authenticity management, pharmaceutical care services, and drug supply capabilities. They are committed to providing safe, convenient, affordable, high-quality, and reliable medical and healthcare services to the broad patient population, thereby laying a solid foundation for the further implementation of healthcare reform policies.

Previously, the business of prescription outflow was considered the “patent” of pharmaceutical distribution giants, which possessed extensive accumulated hospital resources and robust drug supply capabilities. In contrast, retail pharmacies had limited ability to access hospital resources and insufficient drug supply capabilities, placing them at a disadvantage in the prescription outflow market.

In fact, the retail pharmacy sector, having undergone rapid development, has established the foundation to accommodate the outflow of prescriptions from hospitals. First, the large number of retail pharmacies ensures optimal patient coverage. Second, market concentration in the retail pharmacy sector continues to rise, with the chain store rate exceeding 50%, which facilitates refined industry management and enhances service capabilities. Finally, innovative technological tools and platforms empower retail pharmacies, enabling their drug supply and pharmaceutical care services to meet the demands associated with prescription extension.

In addition to standardizing prescription sharing, the out-of-hospital prescription business has also brought new challenges to channel management for pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies, as well as to the efficiency and professionalism of the pharmaceutical retail industry. Therefore, the collaborative agreement signed between the chain pharmacy and Baiyang Pharmaceutical Group also includes a comprehensive smart pharmacy solution.

Baixiang Pharmaceutical Group will provide prescription information-sharing pharmacies with comprehensive solutions encompassing intelligent medical services, health experience services, digital marketing and extended services, as well as external prescription and chronic disease management services. This initiative aims to facilitate the intelligent upgrading of traditional pharmacies, transforming them from mere product retailers into community health service centers.

In terms of specific applications, the Yifuzhen third-party prescription sharing platform will also explore services such as "online ordering with in-store pickup" and "online ordering with store delivery," building upon the foundation of the "Wuzhou Model."

The greatest challenges in extending prescription services lie in areas such as medical insurance pooling, prescription authenticity, rational drug use, and end-to-end traceability. By integrating with prescription information-sharing platforms, retail pharmacies can address these issues in a targeted manner, ensuring “authentic prescriptions,” “verified patients,” and “legitimate sales,” thereby enabling the unrestricted access of pooled medical insurance funds to retail pharmacies without concern.

During the initial phase of platform development, retail pharmacies may accept payments from the personal accounts of medical insurance cards. In later stages, access to the pooled fund account can be gradually expanded to cover specific diseases and patient populations. Meanwhile, "Chronic Disease Medication Benefit Management" services can be introduced to oversee medical processes—including patient consultations, prescription reviews, and chronic disease management—thereby ensuring the rational use of healthcare expenditures.

Policy planning indicates that retail pharmacies will become the primary recipients of prescription outflows. If this transition is managed in an orderly manner, it will generate over RMB 100 billion in incremental market value for the retail pharmacy sector within a few years, effectively doubling the industry’s scale. This undoubtedly represents a significant positive development for retail pharmacies.

Ma Guanglei concluded by stating that the expansion of prescription dispensing outside hospitals tests technical capabilities, service capabilities, and industrial capabilities. Leveraging Baiyang Pharmaceutical’s technological advantages and operational expertise in industrial resources, the Yifuzhen third-party prescription sharing platform will work with numerous partners, including hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and pharmacies, to gradually promote the “Wuzhou Model” across China. This initiative aims to support healthcare reform, achieve the separation of prescribing and dispensing, and enhance patient satisfaction and sense of gain.