Allergan Partners with Alibaba Health to Launch Digital Platform to Serve Chinese Medical Aesthetics Market

-- Partnership Focused on Providing Medical Aesthetics Consumer Education, Consultation, and Treatment Packages with Partnering Hospitals Across China --

-- Designed to Further Guide Chinese Consumers to Choose Qualified Medical Aesthetics Hospitals, Doctors and Products in Pursing Beauty --

-- Creates Unique Synergy between Allergan's Leading Medical Aesthetics Brands and Alibaba Health's Online Influence and Reach with Medical Aesthetics Consumers in China --

BEIJING, Sept. 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Allergan, a global biopharmaceutical company and leader in medical aesthetics, and Alibaba Health, the flagship platform of Alibaba in the healthcare sector, announced that they have formed a strategic partnership to launch a medical aesthetics consumer education and consultation platform for the Chinese market. 

Representatives of Allergan and Alibaba Health conduct strategic partnership signing

Through the partnership, Allergan and Alibaba Health aim to propel the use of appropriate medical aesthetics consultation and treatment via a sustainable medical aesthetics ecosystem in China. The two companies will leverage mobile internet and artificial intelligence to integrate competitive medical aesthetics resources and explore the online-to-offline (O2O) model across China.  

The partnership will be officially launched at the end of September, through an Allergan-branded web page on the Alibaba Health platform. Through the page, consumers can access professional online medical aesthetics consultations and make online appointments for treatment packages of Allergan-branded medical aesthetics products offered by partnering hospitals and clinics.

Jason Smith, Allergan Senior Vice President and President of APAC MEA, said, "Together, Allergan and Alibaba Health are taking an important step to create a digital platform that will advance appropriate consultation and selection for Chinese consumers of medical aesthetic treatment. Through the platform, tens of millions of Chinese consumers will be properly guided to choose qualified products and treatments at accredited hospitals and have appropriate consultations with well-trained healthcare professionals." 

Leveraging Alibaba Health's Digital Consumer Platform to Propel Medical Aesthetics Consumption Across the Chinese Market

The global expansion of internet and digital technologies in recent years is having an increasingly strong impact on China's healthcare industry, driving massive growth in China's healthcare consumption capacity. According to the Boston Consulting Group's (BCG) "China's Digital Healthcare Market Transformation" report^[1], China's digital healthcare market will grow exponentially in the coming years. From 2014 to 2020, the expenditure scale of applied digital healthcare services and healthcare e-commerce is set to increase to USD 102.6 billion from USD 293 million.

The trend is more apparent in the medical aesthetics segment, with strong growth across younger consumer groups. From 2013 to 2017, the growth rate of annual average transactions on medical aesthetics apps exceeded 200%^[2]. According to Alibaba Health, GMV (gross merchandise volume) generated from the medical aesthetics segment increased by 520% year-on-year, during Alibaba's 2017 "11.11" Global Shopping Festival.

Online portals and mobile apps, including Alibaba Health, focused on medical aesthetics are quickly emerging and attracting tens of millions of users in China. The medical device and medical healthcare services segment of Alibaba Health's platform alone has 85.5 million active users and an established ecosystem with medical aesthetics hospitals and clinics as partners.

"Alibaba Health recently launched an online medical aesthethics service platform to explore new ways to support the increased demand for 'quality consumption' in medical aesthetics," said Zhong Congdi, head of global medical consumerism at Alibaba Health. "This new cooperation with Allergan, a leading global pharmaceutical and medical aesthetics company, will achieve comprehensive integration of both partners' advantageous resources, enabling us to provide transparent and authentic medical aesthetics information, as well as safe and effective medical aesthetics solutions for China's consumers."

Collaborating with Value Chain Partners for a "Healthy China"

This strategic collaboration with Alibaba Health is also a significant move by Allergan in cooperating with partners in the industrial chain and building a sustainable medical aesthetics ecosystem. China's medical aesthetics industry is growing explosively. According to Deloitte's "China's Medical Aesthetics Market Analysis 2017" report^[3], China's medical aesthetics market will reach 20.6 billion USD by 2020.

With challenges arising in the medical aesthetics industry in the face of this growth, the National Health and Family Planning Commission and six other departments jointly issued the "Special Action Plan to Combat Illegal Medical Aesthetics" in 2017, which built a sound, longterm mechanism and effectively safeguarded consumer rights and interests.

Against this backdrop, the strategic partnership will fully leverage Alibaba Health's influence and expertise in the online medical aesthetics sector to reach large Chinese consumer groups, while Allergan will provide them with transparent and authentic medical aesthetics information to guide them in choosing qualified medical aesthetics institutions, doctors and products in pursuing beauty. For instance, Botox® customers will be able to verify the authenticity of their products with the tracking service powered by Alibaba Health, scanning the drug traceability code on the Botox® package in the Taobao, Alipay or Alibaba Health apps.

About Allergan plc

Allergan plc (NYSE: AGN), headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is a bold, global pharmaceutical company and a leader in a new industry model - Growth Pharma. Allergan is focused on developing, manufacturing and commercializing branded pharmaceutical, device, biologic, surgical and regenerative medicine products for patients around the world.

Allergan markets a portfolio of leading brands and best-in-class products for the central nervous system, eye care, medical aesthetics and dermatology, gastroenterology, women's health, urology and anti-infective therapeutic categories.

Allergan is an industry leader in Open Science, a model of research and development, which defines our approach to identifying and developing game-changing ideas and innovation for better patient care. With this approach, Allergan has built one of the broadest development pipelines in the pharmaceutical industry.

Allergan's success is powered by our global colleagues' commitment to being Bold for Life. Together, we build bridges, power ideas, act fast and drive results for our customers and patients around the world by always doing what is right.

With commercial operations in approximately 100 countries, Allergan is committed to working with physicians, healthcare providers and patients to deliver innovative and meaningful treatments that help people around the world live longer, healthier lives every day.

For more information, visit Allergan's website at www.Allergan.com.

About Alibaba Health

Alibaba Health (00241.HK) is the healthcare flagship and a subsidiary of Alibaba Group. Driven by the Double H strategy (Health and Happiness), it leverages Alibaba Group's strengths in e-commerce, technologies and cloud computing to offer customers and healthcare industry players comprehensive online solutions that facilitate the cross-regional sharing of social healthcare resources, enhance the efficiency of medical care and promote easier access to medicine.

Alibaba Health's current business focus is on pharmaceutical e-commerce, intelligent medicine and product tracking.

For more information, please visit Alibaba Health's website at http://www.alihealth.cn.

Forward-Looking Statement

Statements contained in this press release that refer to future events or other non-historical facts are forward-looking statements that reflect Allergan's current perspective on existing trends and information as of the date of this release. Actual results may differ materially from Allergan's current expectations depending upon a number of factors affecting Allergan's business. These factors include, among others, the difficulty of predicting the timing or outcome of FDA approvals or actions, if any; the impact of competitive products and pricing; market acceptance of and continued demand for Allergan's products; the impact of uncertainty around timing of generic entry related to key products, including RESTASIS^®, on our financial results; uncertainty associated with financial projections, projected cost reductions, projected synergies, restructurings, increased costs, and adverse tax consequences; difficulties or delays in manufacturing; and other risks and uncertainties detailed in Allergan's periodic public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to Allergan's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017. Except as expressly required by law, Allergan disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

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