Pfizer China President Wu Xiaobin: Let's Do Something Big Together
As the head of Pfizer China, the Chinese division of the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, Dr. Wu Xiaobin boasts an impressive track record and a distinct personal style. He is widely respected for his outstanding achievements in the Chinese market and his profound understanding of China’s healthcare landscape.
Pfizer China, led by Dr. Wu Xiaobin, has not only achieved rapid performance growth over the past two years but also drawn attention for its bold innovation. Dr. Wu once stated, “The direction of China’s healthcare reform aligns with our strategic orientation. My current focus is to leverage Pfizer’s industry leadership to undertake projects that can benefit the health of the Chinese people and contribute to the advancement of the nation’s healthcare system.”
Wu Xiaobin, President of Pfizer China
From this perspective, Pfizer has made significant efforts. Its rapid pace and strong momentum resemble those of an agile startup rather than a large corporation, yet as a major pharmaceutical company, Pfizer bears greater responsibility and ambition.
Confronting China's Healthcare Challenges
Prior to the exclusive interview with Dr. Wu Xiaobin, this reporter had attended one of his presentations at a conference. Dr. Wu’s speech was remarkably down-to-earth, as he pointed out the most straightforward facts underlying China’s healthcare challenges: high costs and difficult access to medical care. Furthermore, Dr. Wu illustrated these issues with personal anecdotes, noting that even someone of his stature finds it challenging to help relatives and friends navigate the healthcare system in China. Breaking down the issue further, Dr. Wu identified the following key points:
Severe imbalance in the distribution of medical resources. The tiered diagnosis and treatment system is inadequately established, leading to overcrowding in large hospitals and cumbersome medical procedures, which drastically reduce healthcare efficiency for patients.
As key participants in the healthcare industry, medical professionals’ professional value has not been fully recognized, and their motivation has not been adequately mobilized. There is an urgent need to deregulate “free practice” and “multi-site practice,” allowing market mechanisms to function effectively while the government fulfills its regulatory role, thereby enabling healthcare workers to play a significant part in establishing a basic medical security system.
China’s healthcare reform faces significant challenges and requires concerted efforts and experimentation across all sectors.
Wu Xiaobin believes that, as the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, Pfizer has an unequivocal duty to support and serve the reform of China’s healthcare system. According to Wu, the key to addressing China’s healthcare challenges lies in innovation. Such innovation primarily stems from two sources: first, the rise of the internet, which has created abundant opportunities and possibilities for innovation; and second, the synergistic effects generated by the integration of cross-sector resources.
Wu Xiaobin, who advocates confronting problems head-on, led Pfizer in pioneering the journey to break the ice on medical innovation in China.
From Startup Competitions to Medical Partnerships
Internet healthcare has risen rapidly since 2014, and Pfizer is one of the pharmaceutical companies that responded most quickly. As early as January 2015, Pfizer joined hands with Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners China, and others to hold the first “Innovative e-Therapy” startup competition. This was the first internet healthcare startup competition created by a pharmaceutical company in collaboration with capital firms, and similar competitions have emerged in large numbers ever since.
Wu Xiaobin told VCBeat, “With a population of 1.3 billion and a vast territory, it is impossible for Pfizer’s employees alone to reach such a large group. Fortunately, the internet has made it possible for us to connect with more people.”
Hosting a mobile health startup competition represents a significant initiative in Pfizer’s innovation strategy. A key takeaway from the “Innovation e-Therapy” program for Pfizer has been the establishment of collaborative partnerships with numerous internet companies. Meanwhile, it has also fostered a new understanding of Pfizer among these digital enterprises.
Wu Xiaobin believes that innovation is one of the most powerful tools for solving problems. The establishment of a startup competition platform aims to unite China’s medical innovation forces. However, healthcare is a highly complex field, and internet-based innovation alone is insufficient. Hence, the more robust “Medical Partner” initiative was introduced.
In 2016, Pfizer once again launched the “Healthcare Partners” Startup Competition. This edition featured a more prestigious lineup of organizers and covered a broader range of fields. In addition to the investor Legend Capital, the organizing partners included Tencent, a giant in the TMT sector, and Ping An Insurance, an insurance industry leader.
“Medical Partners” represents a significant upgrade to the startup competition. It is not confined to the internet sector or the realm of capital alone; rather, it aims to integrate diverse stakeholders in China’s healthcare reform, creating a broader platform to drive innovation and transformation in the Chinese healthcare system.
Wu Xiaobin told VCBeat that, in fact, healthcare institutions should be added to the current group of collaborators, and the government should be invited to join the discussion. By coming together to explore how to leverage this resource-matching and collaboration platform, we can provide more innovative opportunities for bright, entrepreneurial young people. This collective effort aims to deliver higher-value services to patients, create a better practice environment for physicians to realize their professional worth, and ultimately improve China’s healthcare landscape.
Pfizer’s Expectations for Healthcare Partners
Wu Xiaobin stated that Pfizer adheres to several principles for its “Healthcare Partners.”
First, Pfizer aims to create an open platform that allows healthcare partners to fully leverage their capabilities.
Second, Pfizer adheres to the principle of focusing on its core competencies while leaving other areas to specialists. With drug R&D at the heart of its innovation strategy, Pfizer engages in open collaborations with leading partners across various fields, recognizing that “specialization drives excellence.”
Pfizer expects its healthcare partners to help refine China’s healthcare ecosystem, driving progress across all segments. Taking chronic diseases as an example, Pfizer places significant emphasis on improvements in several key areas.
First is patient health management. Although there are numerous health management products currently on the market, more robust products and teams are needed to develop nationwide offerings that popularize health management awareness among the general public, thereby generating foundational medical data.
Second is the connection between patients and doctors. By establishing a health management framework, real-time communication and treatment mechanisms are built between patients and doctors. This may resolve 85% of the problems.
Third, establish mechanisms for enhanced information sharing among physicians and between physicians and healthcare institutions.
Each of these steps holds significant value in facilitating the flow and interconnectivity of information. For Pfizer, the popularization of medical and health knowledge, as well as the dissemination of pharmaceutical knowledge, constitutes a critical component in addressing healthcare challenges in China.
In terms of medical partnership models, partners can range from internet companies to traditional firms in the medical device and healthcare service sectors. Pfizer warmly welcomes any partner that contributes to the improvement of China’s healthcare ecosystem.
Cases Under Trial
For example, in mid-2015, Pfizer China signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with a smart hardware company. The two parties initiated preliminary collaboration in areas such as health management for chronic diseases (including cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and hypertension), research and development and utilization of integrated pharmaceutical-device products, expansion of internet-based health services, and online sales of pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
Wu Xiaobin told VCBeat that Pfizer has many excellent partners. “We have a very clear goal: we do not want to do everything ourselves, and we recognize that there are many entities in the world that are more capable than us. Therefore, we welcome healthcare partners to become collaborators with Pfizer.”
According to VCBeat, in addition to embracing external innovation, Pfizer is also vigorously promoting internal innovation and has established a dedicated innovation fund.
“Integrating internal and external resources will surely set us apart. ‘In two years, Pfizer will undoubtedly introduce many innovative models,’ Wu Xiaobin told VCBeat with pride.”