SHANGHAI, June 20, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Merck, a leading science and technology company, today signed a strategic collaboration agreement with Chinese internet healthcare company Alibaba Health, to provide Chinese patients and their families with improved access to patient-centric healthcare services. At the signing ceremony in Shanghai, both companies announced the collaboration will focus on the areas of drug tracking and tracing and internet health services, and to jointly explore areas such as pharmaceutical e-commerce and artificial intelligence.
"We are proud to partner with Alibaba Health, a distinguished world leader in digital healthcare. Through Alibaba Health's digital platform, we can bring Merck's healthcare expertise to even more patients and their families all across China," said Simon Sturge, Chief Operating Officer of Merck's Healthcare business.
The collaboration will start with Alibaba Health's drug tracking platform, combining Merck's expertise in diabetes, thyroid disorders and cardiovascular diseases with Alibaba Health's strengths in online healthcare to help ensure safety and security of drug use, while generating consistent value for patients through a series of add-on services. The two companies will also explore online healthcare service applications, Direct-to-Patient models as well as Artificial Intelligence enabled healthcare applications.
"I have high expectations for the partnership between Alibaba Health and Merck, which is a logical step in this era," said Leo Shen, CEO of Alibaba Health. "China is experiencing a profound Internet transformation where the Internet will penetrate every stage of industrial production, business operations and people's daily lives. Given the uniqueness and importance of the healthcare industry, the integration of Internet and traditional medical and healthcare industries also needs to be driven by industry leaders. We hope the partnership between Alibaba Health and Merck will enrich each other's offerings and services, and will become a catalyst for the sustainable development of Merck."
As the healthcare flagship of Alibaba Group in implementing its "Double H" (Health and Happiness) strategy, Alibaba Health aims to provide fair, affordable and accessible healthcare services, by leveraging on its specialized healthcare ecosystem and innovative technologies.
"Our mission is to transform the lives of 40 million patients in China by 2025 and digitalization will play a vital role in helping us to achieve that aim," said Rogier Janssens, General Manager of Merck's Biopharma business in China. "By combining Merck's expertise and rich knowledge in fields such as chronic disease, fertility and oncology, with Alibaba Health's cutting-edge technology and technical expertise, today's agreement will effectively improve disease awareness and health management of patients in China via advanced internet approaches."
In recent years, the Chinese government has carried out a series of comprehensive policy measures to push forward medical reform. As a high-priority national development strategy, the "Healthy China 2030" initiative is the first long-term strategic plan in the healthcare field to be established at the national level. The initiative revolves around the "Big Health" concept and aims to encourage Chinese society to actively invest in healthcare. To meet increasingly diversified healthcare needs, in April 2018 China's State Council released a set of guidelines on "Internet + Healthcare" encouraging a deeper integration of the internet and healthcare. These guidelines represent another important step in the central government's implementation of its "Internet + Healthcare" strategy.
In line with these policies, Merck is embracing the digital era with an open mind, and is proactively expanding health access via "Internet +" approaches.
China is an important strategic market for Merck. Throughout its 85-year history in China, Merck has been at the forefront of bringing benefits to patients and their families with its innovative drugs and healthcare solutions.
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About Merck
Merck is a leading science and technology company in healthcare, life science and performance materials. Almost 53,000 employees work to further develop technologies that improve and enhance life - from biopharmaceutical therapies to treat cancer or multiple sclerosis, cutting-edge systems for scientific research and production, to liquid crystals for smartphones and LCD televisions. In 2017, Merck generated sales of EUR 15.3 billion in 66 countries.
Founded in 1668, Merck is the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company. The founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed corporate group. Merck holds the global rights to the Merck name and brand. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the company operates as EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma and EMD Performance Materials.
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.
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