Helikang's Profitability Model: Empowering Grassroots Healthcare Through Integrated Academic Promotion in Pediatric Respiratory Therapy

Let us begin with a story: Dr. Xiong is a pulmonologist at Wuhan Hetian Hospital, a primary care hospital serving the local community. Previously, his treatment approaches for common respiratory diseases were limited to intravenous infusion and oral administration; although he was aware of nebulized drug delivery, he had never utilized it in practice. On one occasion, he attended an academic training program for primary care physicians organized by Wuhan Helikang, where he learned about Helikang’s service that assists primary care physicians in establishing nebulization centers.Complimentary nebulization equipment, access to pharmaceutical procurement channels, and one-stop services for technical training and equipment maintenance,Thus, he established a nebulization center in the outpatient clinic.

Typically, patients would go to Grade 3A hospitals for nebulization therapy, which was both troublesome and labor-intensive. Once surrounding patients learned that he offered this service, they began to seek treatment at his clinic one after another. As outpatient volume continued to rise, he recognized the benefits and started patiently communicating with parents who requested intravenous infusions about the advantages of nebulized inhalation therapy. This created a virtuous cycle: now, the average daily outpatient visits reach 150, with both revenue and reputation significantly improved.

This is what Wuhan Helikang does: academic promotion of product portfolios, centered on “pediatric respiratory diseases,” integrating pharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostics, and even internet-based tools to provide patients with end-to-end solutions, and accordingly conducting academic information dissemination and integrated promotion to target physicians.

Since 2014, over 300 training sessions of varying scales have been conducted. Over the three-year project implementation period, a total of 1,076 nebulization centers (rooms) have been established in primary healthcare institutions across Hubei Province. The project has served 1,200 VIP terminal clients and donated more than 5,000 nebulization devices, with each device serving an average of 8–10 patients per day.

In 2013, Wang Xiangjun relinquished his executive position at a publicly listed company and its lucrative annual salary to co-found Helikang with friends, venturing into the primary healthcare market. Initially focused on promoting respiratory medications, he gained profound insights through extensive interactions with primary care physicians. He recognized a significant disparity in medical expertise between primary care providers and those at tiered hospitals. This gap was evident in the diagnosis and treatment of common and frequently occurring diseases, as well as specialized and chronic conditions.

For instance, primary care physicians are accustomed to the “three agents and one solution” regimen (antibiotics, corticosteroids, vitamins, and glucose-saline infusion) and to administering intravenous drips. However, many medical malpractice incidents at the primary care level are associated with intravenous injections. In recent years, national policies have guided tertiary hospitals to gradually restrict the misuse of antibiotics in outpatient settings and encourage physicians to reduce the use of intravenous injections.

Therefore, whether from the perspective of national policy guidance, clinical treatment guidelines, or risk control for primary care physicians, it is imperative to adopt safe and effective clinically appropriate technologies. Consequently, Wang Xiangjun decided to shift his focus to promoting nebulized drug delivery.and focusing on the field of pediatric respiratory diseases。

With the introduction of multiple national pharmaceutical policies, the landscape of the pharmaceutical distribution industry is undergoing subtle changes. The traditional business model characterized by extensive regional distribution and provincial agents engaging in opportunistic price gouging is no longer effective for driving sales. Therefore, Wang Xiangjun drew reference from Shenzhen China Sun PharmaCSOMode，Explored and implemented an academic promotion model for product portfolios, positioning academic promotion at the core of the company’s strategy rather than merely as a sales tactic, and targeting primary-care physicians as the key customer segment, thereby enabling the company toPromotionAgentThe products quickly captured the market.

Unlike the marketing departments typically established by conventional pharmaceutical companies or distributors, the Company has established a dedicated Medical Affairs Department.The Medical Affairs Department serves the company’s academic promotion strategy. On one hand, it integrates external expert advisory resources and upstream product-related academic resources, conducts continuous research and innovation focused on single-disease entities, and ultimately develops academic promotion plans. On the other hand, it provides training for the internal sales team and downstream end-customers. More importantly, it continuously collects feedback on clinical treatment practices from primary-care physicians to optimize and update academic promotion plans, thereby creating a closed-loop system for academic promotion.

Unlike the product-centric academic promotion traditionally led by manufacturers, Helikon’s patient-centered academic promotion model for the primary healthcare market focuses on disease treatment by integrating clinically appropriate technologies, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostic tests, and even internet-based tools such as big data and cloud computing. This approach aims to enhance the quality of primary healthcare services by improving the clinical skills of grassroots physicians. Figuratively speaking, the difference between the traditional manufacturer-led model and the model advocated by Helikon is akin to the distinction between “giving a man a fish” and “teaching him how to fish.”

Unlike the platform model of pharmaceutical distributors, which often carries tens of thousands of SKUs, the product portfolio under Helikon’s agency services features no internal competition among items; instead, they are complementary.For instance, chemical drugs are categorized into different classes, while proprietary Chinese medicines are classified according to syndrome differentiation-based treatment. All products create a synergistic "fist" effect, ensuring that every product under our agency services occupies a core position in promotional efforts.

Wang Xiangjun introduced that the company has a complete functional organizational structure. It boasts outstanding talents with years of work experience in medicine, pharmacy, and marketing, as well as an expert advisory team from the departments of otolaryngology, pediatrics, and respiratory medicine at Tongji Hospital and Peking Union Medical College Hospital.

Furthermore, the Company’s promotional business team has been deeply rooted in the Hubei market for many years, leveraging abundant local network resources in the primary healthcare sector. The Company’s core competitive advantages are primarily concentrated in operational management and marketing promotion.. Wang Xiangjun expressed that if any enterprise has high-quality maternal and child health or respiratory products or projects requiring promotion among primary care physicians, they are keen to form strong strategic partnerships with them.

Currently, Helikang’s primary revenue model consists of commissions from pharmaceutical marketing and profits from the sales of medical devices and equipment. In the future, it will gradually expand to include dividend shares from terminal advertising revenue and commissions from ground promotion services for internet-based projects.The company achieved profitability last year.. After several years of development, Helikang has found that primary care physicians are highly receptive to its model,Therefore, Wang Xiangjun expressed the hope of securing financing, particularly from strategic investors who can facilitate project implementation in the primary healthcare market, to accelerate the nationwide expansion of the project.

Regarding Future Development,Wang Xiangjun aims to establish Heli Kang as a leading market promotion outsourcing service provider for grassroots medical institutions in China., Currently, the company primarily focuses on respiratory and pediatric product lines but will deepen its expansion into products tailored for primary care physicians. This includes introducing internet-based projects dedicated to the primary healthcare market, thereby upgrading to a user-centric, comprehensively integrated marketing model that encompasses pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and “Internet+” solutions.

In 2017, the company aimed to upgrade its entire portfolio of pediatric respiratory products and engage in in-depth collaboration with internet-based projects;

In 2018, the company collaborated with grassroots healthcare market promotion service providers in other provinces to expand its philosophy and business model nationwide.

In 2019, a new business model for the academic promotion of product portfolios in China’s primary healthcare market was initially established.