Pfizer, Ping An, Tencent, and Legend Capital Join Forces to Launch 'Medical Partners' Innovation Initiative

In 2015, a wave of healthcare policies was intensively introduced, and innovative models such as internet-based healthcare emerged one after another. The healthcare industry has reached a new inflection point, heralding the arrival of a new era.

Against this backdrop, the largest cross-industry collaboration in China’s healthcare sector has emerged. Pfizer, a Fortune 500 company, joined forces with three industry giants—Ping An Insurance, Tencent—and top-tier Chinese investment firm Legend Capital, with the shared goal of building China’s premier innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in healthcare. This development signifies that the nation’s leading pharmaceutical companies, insurers, TMT (Technology, Media, and Telecom) firms, and investment institutions are all focusing their attention on the healthcare sector. They share the belief that only through collaboration can we change the world.

Therefore, in late 2015, the “Big Four” officially launched the “Medical Career Growth, Collaborative Win-Win” Medical Partnership Innovation Cooperation Proposal Competition, inviting China’s most outstanding healthcare innovators and entrepreneurs to collaborate for mutual success.

Pfizer: From Startup Competitions to Co-Building an Industry Ecosystem
This is not the first time Pfizer has held an innovation competition. In early 2015, at the Innovation e-Therapy Entrepreneurship Competition hosted by Pfizer, a wide array of internet healthcare projects flourished, and the competition reignited interest in internet healthcare entrepreneurship.

This time, Pfizer has joined forces with four industry giants—Ping An of China, Tencent, and Legend Capital—to launch the “Growing Together in Healthcare, Winning Through Partnership” Innovation Challenge for Medical Partners. The competition focuses on “industrial resource collaboration,” with its primary objective being to establish the most influential dialogue platform in the healthcare sector. It aims to help healthcare professionals find partners, facilitate resource alignment with various stakeholders including industry leaders, and build an innovative ecosystem for the healthcare industry.

This year’s Medical Partner Competition features numerous innovations. First, it involves a major integration of resources, with organizers including traditional pharmaceutical companies, insurance firms, TMT giants, and investment institutions. Second, it pioneers the concept and model of “medical partners,” emphasizing long-term development. Third, the scope has been expanded: participating companies are no longer limited to internet healthcare enterprises; firms in medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare services are also eligible to join.

Pfizer stated that it hopes such a competition will become an essential need for entrepreneurs. “Projects in the healthcare sector all emphasize business models, yet the foundation of any business model lies in collaboration. This competition will gather the most diverse collaborative resources within the industry, enabling all parties to explore innovative models of cooperation.”

Furthermore, the open and mutually beneficial dialogue platform established by this competition has provided entrepreneurs with opportunities for in-depth communication with industry-leading companies, enabling them to gain a deeper understanding of each other’s core pain points and laying a solid foundation for resource integration.

Pfizer’s startup competition earlier this year focused on disease management, highlighting its approach to healthcare entrepreneurship through effective business integration. This year, Pfizer is expanding collaboration opportunities beyond disease management to include areas such as physician communities, big data, clinical research, and the combined application of pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

Furthermore, for Pfizer, traditional academic activities have largely consisted of one-on-one visits or academic conferences. However, in the internet era, the company can leverage a wider range of mobile internet platforms to enhance efficiency and optimize services for physicians.

“Unlike traditional collaborations that merely involve simple resource exchanges, this competition aims to create a brand-new, open model. It seeks to attract elites in the healthcare industry to become partners with one another. On one hand, there is no hierarchy among partners. The four organizers, the competition’s collaborators, and the numerous participating teams are all key members of the healthcare ecosystem; multi-party cooperation and mutual success are the core themes of this event. On the other hand, the partnership model is based on complementary advantages among all parties. The four organizers, each from different fields, jointly build a platform to invite more industry resources to join, turning outstanding professionals in the healthcare sector into partners who collectively drive industry transformation and development.”

Ping An of China: From Medical and Health Products to Services, Integrating the Entire Industry Chain
This marks Ping An’s inaugural participation in a startup competition within the healthcare sector. As a domestic insurance giant and a Fortune Global 500 company, Ping An holds strong confidence in the development of the healthcare industry and has long been strategically positioning itself in this field. Furthermore, the event’s focus on innovation aligns closely with Ping An’s strategic interests. Additionally, co-hosting the “Healthcare Partners” Startup Competition with multinational pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, Tencent, and Legend Capital represents a significant integration of resources.

With 80 million users, thousands of contracted offline medical institutions, and health insurance administration services in 100 cities, Ping An Insurance holds inherent resource advantages in its internet healthcare business layout. This is also a key reason why the Ping An Good Doctor app surpassed 35 million downloads within less than a year of its launch.

Leveraging the Ping An Good Doctor app, Ping An has established an end-to-end service ecosystem covering initial consultations, follow-up visits, chronic disease management, and medication delivery. By tapping into existing offline medical resources, Ping An has rapidly contracted with thousands of physicians to provide initial and follow-up consultation services. For chronic disease management and medication delivery, Ping An has pursued an investment-driven strategy. Ping An is an investor in Zhange Tangyi, a mobile platform for diabetes management, and in Yaogeli, a pharmaceutical O2O service provider. Additionally, Ping An holds investments in Meinian Onehealth Healthcare and Ciming Health Checkup.

Companies invested in by Ping An are integrated into its existing businesses or products through various means. For instance, Zhangshang Tangyi has been linked with Ping An’s local medical insurance diabetes services, providing chronic disease management solutions to Ping An’s health insurance customers. As a medication delivery service provider for the Ping An Good Doctor app, Yaogeli benefits from the app’s physician resources, which offer medication consultation and guidance to users on the Yaogeli platform.

Likewise, Ping An’s existing resources and platforms are fully accessible to entrepreneurs participating in the “Medical Partner” Startup Competition. Furthermore, Ping An operates its own investment arm, with dedicated business units providing support to companies at early, growth, and late stages.

In terms of investment planning in the healthcare sector, Ping An has outlined four key strategies: First, it will continue to increase investments in this field. Second, its investment scope is not limited to internet healthcare but also extends to new biotechnologies, medical services, medical devices, and clinics. Regarding the selection of specific investment targets, Ping An places the highest priority on a company’s innovation capability. “We look for companies that possess certain industry competitive barriers, represent the broader direction of industry development, or can integrate with or complement Ping An’s existing business operations.”

Tencent: Serving as the Connector in the Healthcare Industry
Tencent has always aimed to serve as the connector between the internet and various industries. By linking partners on one end and a vast user base on the other, it seeks to jointly build a healthy and vibrant internet ecosystem. In the healthcare sector, Tencent will adhere to this strategy by focusing on its core competency in connectivity, while entrusting the other half of the value chain to its partners.

Tencent’s exploration in the healthcare sector began last year. Healthcare systems are highly complex, and as an internet company, Tencent does not specialize in medical technology. “Therefore, Tencent aims to foster connectivity across the entire ecosystem, providing a fertile ground for partners who are more specialized and capable than us to amplify their innovations on a broader scale, thereby serving a larger population.”

Tencent is facilitating connectivity across four dimensions, serving as a connector between people, medical services, devices, and medical and health information. Specific examples include WeChat Smart Hospitals, Smart Pharmacies, the WeChat Hardware Platform, QQ Health, QQ IoT, and the Tangdaifu smart blood glucose meter. Tencent’s “other half” of its business—internet healthcare startups such as Dingxiang Yuan, Guahaowang, and Zhuojian Technology—are also continuously innovating. It is important to emphasize that these innovations were not conceived by Tencent alone, but emerged through in-depth exchanges with its partners.

Tencent believes that the internet can reduce the costs of accessing information or facilitating connections, thereby improving efficiency. “We aim to promote cross-industry collaboration and uncover more innovative ideas to help startups grow healthily and assist relatively mature healthcare and pharmaceutical companies in enhancing their efficiency through the internet.” This is also Tencent’s original intention for participating in the “Medical Partner” Innovation Cooperation Competition. Tencent will pay particular attention to startup projects related to internet healthcare and mobile healthcare.

For startups, Tencent will provide resource matchmaking opportunities and incubation support, including targeted traffic boosts, discussions on financing opportunities, and 3–6 months of free office space.

Legend Capital: Resource Sharing Across 40 Healthcare Projects
Legend Capital’s core business focuses on venture capital investments in early-stage startups and growth investments in expansion-stage companies. Since 2008, Legend Capital has established a presence in the healthcare sector, covering multiple sub-sectors including healthcare services, biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, and diagnostics. Over the past seven years, it has invested in 40 healthcare-related projects, with a total investment volume exceeding USD 300 million. Among these, four projects have achieved exits through initial public offerings (IPOs) or mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

From the perspective of the industrial chain, Legend Capital has made a series of strategic investments. In the field of innovative drugs, it has invested in projects such as Innovent Biologics, Kaiyin Technology, and Shen’aoji. In the medical devices and diagnostics sector, its portfolio includes Kangda Medical, Aohua Endoscopy, Richen Medical, Gerui Technology, Xingtong Medical, Di'er Diagnostics, and Mingde Biology. In the healthcare services segment, Legend Capital has invested in KingMed Diagnostics, Yixintang, Berry Genomics, and Wuhan Asia Heart Hospital. From the disease spectrum perspective, Legend Capital has established industry chain-focused layouts in areas such as oncology, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and liver diseases.

In addition to direct financial investment, Legend Capital will provide startup training and angel investment from Legend Star, incubation services from Suzhou Kailian, and synergistic resources from portfolio companies in the medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare services sectors previously invested in by Legend Star and Legend Capital, as part of its participation in the “Medical Partner” Startup Competition.

Legend Capital believes that with the transformation of the healthcare system and the penetration of internet tools, the future healthcare industry will be more deeply integrated with the internet, and the efficiency of medical services will be enhanced by the internet. However, considering the unique attributes of the healthcare industry, such as government regulation, scarcity of medical resources, numerous specialized segments, high service complexity, and user habits, the integration of the internet and healthcare is a relatively long-term path that requires active exploration and collaboration among all stakeholders in the industry. It cannot be achieved overnight. This is why Legend Capital hopes to establish a collaborative platform with multiple parties to jointly promote the development of the internet healthcare industry.

In post-investment management, in addition to the active support provided by Legend Capital’s healthcare team in industrial resource integration and corporate development strategy, the firm distinguishes itself from most private equity institutions in China by maintaining a professional advisory team of over ten experts in management, finance, and legal affairs. This team plays a vital role in delivering value-added services during the post-investment phase. The company’s CEO Club, CFO Club, and CHO Club series have become hallmark initiatives of Legend Capital’s post-investment services. Furthermore, by leveraging the strategic layouts of Lenovo Star, Hony Capital, and Legend Holdings in the healthcare sector, the firm is able to provide broader support to portfolio startups.

Are you fired up after this introduction? Come on, heroes! Join the Medical Partner Innovation Competition and together create a feast of healthcare innovation and entrepreneurship in 2016!

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