GUANGZHOU, China, Dec. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On 4 December 2018, the 80th Session of the National Pharmaceuticals Trade Fair ("Pharm China") debuted in Guangzhou. Mr. Wu Zongxun, the Chief Product Officer of Ping An Health Medical Technology Company Limited ("Ping An Good Doctor", stock code: 01833.HK) was invited to attend the event and delivered a keynote speech titled "Pharmaceutical Enterprises Join Hands with Internet Healthcare to Build New Pharmaceutical Retail" at the National Pharmaceutical Industry Innovation and Development Forum. During the speech, Mr. Wu explained that Ping An Good Doctor is connecting patients, doctors and pharmaceutical enterprises through mobile internet and artificial intelligence (AI) technology to build a new pharmaceutical retail model. The new model will manage the trillion-dollar incremental market of prescription drugs outflow from hospitals to pharmacies and provide one-stop healthcare solutions for 180 million patients with long-term chronic diseases.
In recent years, as national healthcare reforms continue to advance and relevant policies have been released intensively. Whether it is the medical volume procurement promoted by the National Health Insurance Bureau, the internet healthcare promoted by the Health Commission, or the promulgation of the State Council's comprehensive essential medicine system, all of them have brought many opportunities and challenges to the pharmaceutical industry.
"The industry will continue to benefit from market trends. Since the aging population in China is increasing, the demand on the pharmaceutical industry is still strong," Mr. Wu said. "The potential value of the healthcare market in China will reach RMB8 trillion by 2025, among which the potential transactions of internet healthcare will be over RMB100 billion."
In his view, despite the huge market potential, there are still many pain points in the healthcare industry that need to be improved. For example, the scarce and uneven distribution of high-quality medical resources, poor medical service experience, and social security funds failing to help people make ends meet. The rapid development of mobile internet and AI technology will effectively alleviate the current difficulties.
"Mobile broadband enables high-quality medical resources to be shared across regions, so that residents in small towns and even remote areas can obtain the same high-quality healthcare services as residents in first-tier cities. Artificial intelligence (AI) can greatly improve healthcare efficiency and effectively alleviate the pressure on offline healthcare institutions," he said.
Mr. Wu added that Ping An Good Doctor has become the largest unicorn company in the global healthcare field in just over three years through deep investment and application in "Internet + AI" technology. It has built four core strengths in the industry, including an in-house medical team of more than a thousand personnel, the world's leading AI medical technology, massive base of healthcare users and big data.
Mr. Wu also believes that under the background of the current outflow of prescription drugs, Ping An Good Doctor's global leading AI medical technology not only provides patients with high-quality, convenient one-stop healthcare services, but also empowers partners in the pharmaceutical industry. The data shows that there are currently 360 million chronically ill patients in China, including 180 million long-term patients. It is expected that in the next five years, the outflow of prescription drugs will increase the potential market size from RMB800 billion to RMB1 trillion.
"The market has been liberalized. How can pharmaceutical companies undertake the trillion-dollar incremental market opportunity to meet the medical healthcare needs of chronically ill patients in different regions? It will challenge the user management and marketing abilities of pharmaceutical companies," Mr. Wu said.
With 228 million registered users, more than 48.6 million monthly active users, and more than 300 million online consultations and big data, Ping An Good Doctor can work with pharmaceutical companies to build a new pharmaceutical retail model.
This new pharmaceutical retail model will provide continuous and personalized healthcare management services for patients with chronic diseases in China, including follow-up consultation, prescription renewal, special disease management, and 24-hour patient follow-up. Mr. Wu said that through this new business model, patients with chronic diseases can enjoy the best medical resources in China, while reducing medical costs.
Ping An Good Doctor will also empower the pharmacies with its technology to enhance their capabilities on offering prescription drugs and helping them to achieve more standardized, accurate and efficient services. Ping An Good Doctor earlier launched its one-minute clinics based on internet and AI technology. The one-minute clinics can provide remote consultation services for patients with common diseases, giving users effective recommendations on medicines, and thus becoming a complementary service to the traditional pharmacy services.
About Ping An Healthcare and Technology Company Limited (01833.HK)
Ping An Healthcare and Technology Company Limited ("Ping An Good Doctor", stock code: 01833.HK) is the leading one-stop healthcare ecosystem platform in China. By combining "mobile health + AI technology", the Company strives to provide every family with a family doctor, every person with an e-health profile and everyone with a healthcare management plan. Ping An Good Doctor has established a comprehensive, one-stop healthcare ecosystem covering family doctor services, consumer healthcare services, a health mall as well as health management and wellness interaction.
As of the end of June 2018, there were 228 million registered users and the Company's MAU reached 48.6 million. Ping An Good Doctor is today the largest mobile medical application in China in terms of user scale. Ping An Good Doctor employs more than a thousand medical personnel (Assistant Supervisor Level or above from Class III Grade A Hospitals) in its in-house medical team and contracts with 4,650 renowned external doctors. This in-house medical team, empowered by our proprietary AI technology, provides users with 24 x 7 online consultation services. In our offline partnership network, Ping An Good Doctor collaborates with approximately 3,100 hospitals (including more than 1,200 Class III Grade A hospitals) to provide services such as hospital referral, appointment and inpatient arrangements. Ping An Good Doctor also partners with more than 2,000 healthcare institutions, including physical examination centers, dental clinics, cosmetic surgery institutions and more than 10,000 pharmacy outlets, to provide relevant health and wellness services to our users. By integrating our AI-empowered medical team, external doctors and offline network, Ping An Good Doctor has established a closed-loop healthcare ecosystem which enables our users to enjoy online consultations and online drug purchases, as well as online consultations and offline follow-up treatment, thereby providing convenient, high-quality and efficient family doctor services.
In April 2015, the App "Ping An Good Doctor" was officially launched. In May 2016, the Company completed an A round financing and raised US$500 million. In December 2017, the Company completed the pre-IPO financing from Softbank Vision Fund, during which it raised US$400 million. On 4 May 2018, Ping An Good Doctor became the No.1 listed internet health-tech company in the world when it joined the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, stock code 01833.HK. Our IPO cornerstone investors include Blackrock, Capital Group, GIC, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Swiss Re and CP Group.
