Pfizer China Collaborates with Taikang Insurance and RuiYi Health to Showcase Innovative Drug Access Models and Strengthen Patient Support Systems

Shanghai, China – At the 6th China International Import Expo held on November 7, 2023, hosted by Pfizer“Embracing Cross-Boundary Integration to Uphold the Promise of Health”Successful Holding of the Showcase and Roundtable Discussion on Innovative Access Partnership Models. Pfizer engaged in dialogues with multiple industry partners, including Taikang Online and SOPHMED, to jointly present and conduct in-depth discussions on innovative drug access partnership models across various cross-sector scenarios. These efforts aim to enhance patient accessibility to innovative medicines in China, striving to ensure that cutting-edge therapeutic agents benefit every patient.

Pfizer is committed to exploring innovative access pathways and expanding access scenarios, having introduced more than 80 cutting-edge products to the Chinese market. Currently, Pfizer is accelerating the introduction of unlaunched innovative drugs into China to benefit patients, while piloting innovative access models across various cross-sector domains. The collaborative model showcased at this event, which integrates innovative commercial insurance provided by Taikang Online with patient management services offered by SOPHMED, represents one of the demonstrated innovations in business models.

As population aging accelerates and chronic diseases increasingly affect younger demographics, the financial burden on China’s basic medical insurance system has become increasingly severe. Against the backdrop of national initiatives to establish a multi-tiered healthcare security system, the variety of innovative health insurance products continues to expand, while collaboration models among pharmaceutical companies, insurers, and Third-Party Administrators (TPAs) are becoming increasingly mature. Providing managed care services that cover the entire patient journey—pre-diagnosis, during diagnosis and treatment, and post-diagnosis—has emerged as a shared strategic vision across these stakeholders.

Successful Holding of the Showcase on Innovative Market Access Collaboration Models and Roundtable Discussion

“Against the current industry and policy backdrop, insurance companies must transition from risk bearers to risk controllers, partnering with pharmaceutical companies to provide managed care for patients, ensure standardized diagnosis and treatment, and achieve control over insurance costs.”Ding Junfeng, Vice President of Taikang OnlineSpeak.

Xin Xueming, Head of the Patient Solutions and Diagnostics Team at Pfizer Oncology, stated，Many patients, lacking systematic and scientifically grounded knowledge, neglect daily care and long-term adherence, thereby failing to achieve optimal therapeutic outcomes and even facing the risk of premature disease progression and worsening. In out-of-hospital settings, more scientific and convenient management support is needed to help patients improve adherence and ensure comprehensive disease management across the entire course of illness.

Roundtable Discussion

“The issues that patients prioritize most are the accessibility of treatment regimens, the identification and mitigation of potential risks during treatment, and the monitoring of therapeutic outcomes; these also constitute our core mission in patient management.”Said Zhan Haitao, Founder and Chairman of SOPHMED.

However, traditional management models typically adopt a “paternalistic” approach, emphasizing telling patients what to do while overlooking their ability to adhere to instructions. In contrast, SOPHMED integrates traditional management practices with advanced technologies and concepts. By prioritizing patient perceptions, it offers more services and key performance indicators aligned with patient experiences. Leveraging algorithms to predict patient risks, it provides highly actionable recommendations that enable patients to anticipate risks and effectively follow advice. This creates a positive feedback loop, enhances medication adherence, and helps patients achieve better treatment outcomes and experiences.

Amid the evolving landscape of today’s multi-tiered security system and healthcare payment structure, tightly integrating payment, patient services, and pharmaceutical coverage to reach more individuals with diseases or at high early-stage risk presents a significant opportunity. Meanwhile, in the face of an ever-evolving healthcare ecosystem, providing differentiated medical insurance services to meet patients’ higher-level needs and attract more individuals to participate in commercial health insurance remains a major challenge.

“Our ultimate goal is to maximize patient benefits. Pfizer’s continued focus on the field of innovative access, and its ongoing exploration of pathways and scenarios for innovative access, are aimed at meeting the ever-evolving needs of patients.”Qian Yun, Vice President of Pfizer China and Head of Market Access“We are confident in the future of innovative medicines in the Chinese market. We will actively collaborate with domestic partners to explore the evolution and upgrading of innovative access models, focusing on jointly building a ‘healthcare providers–pharmaceuticals–insurance–patients’ ecosystem. Our goal is to meet the diverse diagnostic and treatment needs of Chinese patients and ensure that Pfizer’s innovative products benefit every patient in China as quickly as possible,” said Qian Yun.

As a professional health services enterprise, SOPHMED has engaged in multiple collaborations with Taikang Insurance Group in the field of innovative commercial insurance, jointly developing a range of insurance products tailored to medical scenarios and patient needs. As a key partner of Taikang, SOPHMED will continue to strengthen the complementary advantages between insurers and pharmaceutical companies in their respective business domains, jointly pioneering new pathways for innovative commercial insurance, enhancing patient access, and providing patients with novel managed care services.