Text | Arterial network
This year, Internet giants and pharmaceutical enterprises jointly launched the 618 battle in the pharmaceutical field.
On the one hand, giant pharmaceutical enterprises cooperate with Internet giants to launch more and more "only in the world" and "first in the world" new drugs online on the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform.
For example, by the end of May 2024, Qi invigorating ophthalmic drug Its "myopic magic drug" 0.01% atropine sulfate eye drops (trademark: Xingqi Meiou Pin ®） It was officially launched in Ali Health Pharmacy. It is reported that this is the only low concentration atropine eye drops approved in China to delay the progress of myopia in children.
In March 2024, Pfizer's brand new generation of migraine specific oral targeted drug, rimazepam orally disintegrating tablets (trade name: Letaike), made its debut online at Meituan Pharmacy, JD Health and Ali Health. This drug is the first and only calcitonin gene related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonist in the world that uses the patented orally disintegrating tablet technology, which can help patients effectively block the key pathways related to migraine, with rapid onset and lasting effect.
In addition, the world's first and only innovative drug, levonor, has been approved for simultaneous treatment of adolescents and adults aged 12 years and over with severe alopecia areata ®、 The first domestic targeted oral drug approved to treat psoriasis ®、 The first domestic GLP-1 drug, Lilalutide injection and other blockbuster innovative drugs have been launched online on the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform.
On the other hand, Internet giants joined hands with pharmaceutical enterprises to fight 618 this year by means of massive capital subsidies and increased marketing investment.
For example, East China Medicine A large number of drugs, such as Lilalutide injection (trade name: Lilupin), Dagelin tablets for diabetes, nifedipine controlled release tablets for various types of hypertension, and uramium bromide and veramterol inhalation powder for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, participated in the 10 billion subsidy activities or 618 activities of Ali Health, JD Health and other medical e-commerce platforms, and fought a price war. Meituan also covered well-known brands such as AstraZeneca, Bayer, Pfizer and Swiss with activity subsidies during the 618 event.
One pay, one return. Meituan's drug buying data shows that since the event, the sales of several categories such as chronic disease drugs have increased by more than 100% compared with the same period last year. Among them, the slow disease medicine Andatang, Yimei facial mask Fulga , health products By health The three categories of protein powder ranked first in sales volume.
Jingdong also listed the "list of the best money for drug purchase 618". Among them: Novo Nordisk Smeglutide injection, metformin hydrochloride tablets for diabetes, and daggligin tablets; Tadalafil and sildenafil citrate tablets for male erectile dysfunction and pulmonary hypertension; Prescription drugs such as Baofa Zhifei Nanxiong Tablets for the treatment of male baldness are included in the list.
One leaf can tell the autumn, and you can know it when you see it. Through the new actions of pharmaceutical enterprises and the new strategy of pharmaceutical e-commerce platform, we can see that more and more innovative drugs are accelerating the launch of pharmaceutical e-commerce channels; Moreover, the sales and sales of innovative drugs on the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform have increased significantly, and e-commerce is becoming an important emerging sales channel for innovative drugs.
Why are innovative drugs being sold online?
The hospital market has always been the core of pharmaceutical enterprises' marketing and promotion. Whether it is clinical academic promotion or customer service maintenance, it is all for doctors to use more innovative drugs in the hospital.
However, at present, pharmaceutical enterprises not only adjust the marketing strategy and strength of the hospital market, but also have opened up the market outside the hospital, put innovative drugs online on the Internet and sold them on the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform.
Why do pharmaceutical enterprises begin to attach importance to pharmaceutical e-commerce channels? Why will more and more innovative drugs be sold online? Perhaps we can see some clues from the changing market pattern.
First, with the implementation of reform policies, the growth rate of drug sales in the hospital market slowed down. For example, after the total cancellation of drug markup, the hospital will sell drugs to patients at the purchase price without any additional charges; The two ticket system cuts down the circulation link, and centralized purchase limits the bid winning price and profit space of drugs; DRG/DIP policy requires doctors to standardize the clinical diagnosis and treatment path and reasonably use prescription drugs. Moreover, policies such as centralized purchase and medical insurance negotiation also shortened the life cycle of drugs, and pushed up the barriers to hospital admission and time costs of pharmaceutical enterprises.
Data can best reflect the market changes brought about by policies. According to the latest data from the Mi Intranet database, in 2023, China's three major terminals will achieve drug sales of 1886.5 billion yuan, an increase of 5.2% year on year. Among them, although public hospitals have the largest market share, accounting for 61.3%, their growth rate is slow, with a year-on-year growth of only 4.8%; In contrast, in the out of hospital market, online pharmacies have achieved a growth rate of 30.8%, which is the fastest in all markets such as public hospitals, retail pharmacies, and public primary medical institutions.
Secondly, with the help of national policies, the development of Internet medicine, the improvement of patients' choice and other factors, the share of the out of hospital market has rapidly increased. For example, the state encourages the development of Internet diagnosis and treatment, and guides Internet hospitals to explore and implement online medical insurance payment; The pharmacy will be included in the overall planning of outpatient services to promote the outflow of prescriptions.
In addition, the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform improves the penetration rate of online drug purchase through a variety of activities, and promotes the growth of online pharmacy sales; In terms of patients, factors such as online consultation, medical science popularization and "long illness becomes a doctor" have reduced the information gap between doctors and patients, increased the participation of patients in medical decision-making, and improved the choice of drugs.
Based on the policy guidance direction and market development trend, the rapid development of the out of hospital market has become the industry consensus. Zhang Buyong, general manager/chief researcher of Mi Nei Net, said earlier: "It is estimated that by 2029, the scale of China's off hospital market will reach 1600 billion yuan, surpassing the in hospital market."
At the same time, in the out of hospital market, pharmaceutical e-commerce channels have the fastest growth rate. According to the data of Mi Intranet, in 2023, the sales of retail pharmacies will exceed 553.3 billion yuan. Among them, the drug sales scale of online pharmacies represented by Alibaba Health and JD Health reached 66.3 billion yuan, up 30.8% year on year, and their market share in all channel sales also increased from 2.8% in 2022 to 3.5% in 2023.
Up to now, the proportion of online pharmacies has continued to increase. Pharmaceutical e-commerce sales have become an important sales channel for retail terminals, and it is expected that it will also become an important sales channel in the out of hospital market.
Finally, since the anti-corruption of medicine, traditional marketing methods have been frustrated, and pharmaceutical enterprises have explored new marketing models and paths. In the past, prescription drug marketing mainly focused on doctors. However, since the medical anti-corruption, the unhealthy tendencies have been mainly rectified. As the anti-corruption of medicine continues to deepen, the traditional marketing methods are facing great challenges.
However, marketing promotion is the key for pharmaceutical enterprises to quickly open the market after launching new products. In this case, pharmaceutical enterprises have explored innovative marketing models and marketing paths. Digital marketing and Internet sales are just one of the directions that pharmaceutical enterprises collectively choose.
For example, after Hualing Pharmaceuticals tried to launch the world's first new diabetes drug "Huatangning" online at the end of 2022, it achieved sales far exceeding traditional channel expectations on the first day. After that, digital marketing has brought rich benefits. Dong Qing, vice president of drug marketing department of Hualing Pharmaceutical, said, "In the past year, Huatangning's sales in the hospital market and outside the hospital market accounted for about 50% respectively."
In addition, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Lilly Baekje China East China Pharmaceutical, Green Valley Pharmaceutical East Sunshine Pharmaceutical companies such as Pharmaceuticals and Leo Pharmaceuticals are exploring to put innovative drugs online for sale on e-commerce platforms.
To sum up, on the one hand, there is the hospital market with slow growth, and on the other hand, there is the hospital market with rapid growth. Pharmaceutical enterprises choose the latter as the new increment of the market; In addition, on the one hand, it is the traditional marketing methods that have suffered heavy setbacks and high risks, and on the other hand, it is the emerging and compliant digital marketing and Internet sales. Pharmaceutical enterprises are obviously more willing to apply compliant digital marketing.
A new round of business war of pharmaceutical e-commerce starts from the first launch of new products
A long time ago, Ali and Jingdong had already arranged medicine and health. Today, Meituan, Tiaoyin, Fasthand, Baidu, Pinduoduo and other platforms have also entered the pharmaceutical e-commerce, trying to share in the rapid growth of online pharmacies.
More entrants mean more fierce market competition. At this stage, the Internet giants are targeting the steady growth of the out of hospital market and the high-speed growth of online pharmacies, and are expected to accelerate the growth of the platform GMV and the company's revenue with the increase of online drug purchase penetration.
It can be said that under the background of mature market and sluggish multi business growth, Internet giants have regarded pharmaceutical e-commerce as one of the new growth points. Therefore, in order to seize more market share, large manufacturers have started a new round of business war in the field of medicine and health. So, what are the specific tactics of the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform?
First, strive for the right to launch innovative drugs online, and enrich the variety of products
In terms of the first launch of new products, each major pharmaceutical e-commerce platform shows its own ingenuity. At the end of May 2024, Ali Health and Xingqi Eye Medicine reached a cooperation, and the only low concentration atropine eye drops approved in China to delay the progress of children's myopia was launched online.
At the same time, Jingdong Health Online launched Meishiya for the first time ® (megestrol acetate oral suspension). The drug is specially used to treat anorexia related to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, and weight loss caused by cachexia in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and cancer. It is reported that Mesia is the only drug with a clear oral dose for cachexia treatment in China, and has been directly recommended by the CSCO Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Cancer cachexia (2021).
In fact, the two platforms have launched many new products on their respective platforms. For example, Ali Health cooperated with Roche, First Three Communist, Pfizer, East China Pharmaceutical and other well-known pharmaceutical enterprises, and launched online blockbuster innovative drugs such as Sufuda, an innovative anti influenza drug, Losoprofen sodium patch, an orthopedic analgesic product, lefunol, a new migraine drug, and Lilalutide injection (Chinese trade name: Lilupin).
JD Health cooperated with AstraZeneca, Tiva Pharmaceutical, Baekje Shenzhou and other pharmaceutical enterprises, and launched the new diabetes drug Andalus, deuterium butbenazine, a drug for Huntington's chorea, the BTK inhibitor Bayueze (Zebutenib), and the innovative tumor drug Angavi (Desumab injection) online.
In addition, Pfizer has previously launched a new generation of migraine specific oral targeted drug Letaike in Meituan Pharmacy, Jingdong Health Pharmacy and Ali Health Pharmacy. It can be seen that the cooperation between large platforms and large pharmaceutical enterprises has not been "one out of two" for the time being.
It is worth mentioning that at the end of December 2023, JD Health will hold the signing ceremony for the first launch of new products in the first quarter of 2024 in Beijing. At the meeting, it cooperated with Swisse Tongrentang , Yuyue, Rimet, Mandi China Resources Shuanghe And 86 famous brands completed the signing of the first launch of new products, and reached an agreement on the creation of new products and resource investment.
As more and more new drug products are launched online, the types of drugs on e-commerce platforms are gradually improving. According to the latest annual report of JD Health, in 2023, all kinds of drugs that can be sold on JD Health Online have been covered.
Second, traffic support to create explosive products
Generally speaking, after the launch of new drugs, long-term academic promotion and marketing are needed to generate sales. But on the Internet, this cycle has been greatly shortened.
Zhao Jing, head of Huizhi China's e-commerce department, once shared a case: after the debut of a high-quality drug on the JD e-commerce platform, through digital marketing, it ranked top 1 on the JD Good Drug List last week. One month after listing, it rose to the second place in OTC ammonia sugar category.
For another example, Pfizer's innovative migraine specific targeted treatment drug, Letai, sold 1000 boxes on the first day of its launch in Jingdong Pharmacy, 1.5 times the total sales of all channels except Jingdong Pharmacy.
On the one hand, because the penetration rate of online drug purchase has increased, pharmaceutical enterprises have invested a certain amount of marketing expenses; On the other hand, JD, Alibaba and other platforms provide traffic support for third-party merchants and new drugs.
Taking Alibaba Health as an example, Tmall Health Platform launched the "New Product Boom Plan" in April 2024, announcing that it will invest tens of millions of yuan in funds and dedicated teams, focus on supporting 100 new health products, and adopt "one product, one policy" for 10 of them, and develop support strategies, incentives and operation plans for each product in stages.
It is reported that the "new product explosion plan" will add a "new product tab" that dominates the whole screen on the basis of home page, search, recommendation, etc., and open a green channel for search and promotion of boutique pool and small black box new product pool in the cold start period of new products to give public traffic support. At the same time, during the new product cultivation period, the platform will customize the precise new promotion project, develop exclusive marketing tools, and break the circle marketing project of the crowd, and integrate the precise free traffic of Taoxi platform.
In addition, the "new product explosion plan" also sets up the first sales incentive, crowd incentive, IP incentive, grass planting incentive and other programs to help pharmaceutical enterprises and businesses create explosive products.
Not only Alibaba Health, but also other pharmaceutical e-commerce platforms are strengthening traffic support to promote the growth of sales and sales of enterprises and businesses on the platform. For example, JD Health increased its support for third-party merchants in traffic in 2023. JD Health provides more exposure opportunities for high-quality businesses and products by optimizing the traffic distribution mechanism, connecting and opening more channels and sales scenarios in the station.
Third, internal services to increase market share
When drugs are ready and buyers are in place, all major platforms begin to provide internal services to create high-quality online drug buying experience and improve market share. Specifically, e-commerce platforms have made efforts to improve services from logistics, online consultation, medical insurance payment and other aspects.
For example, in 2023, Ali Health will further optimize the drug logistics network layout, ensure that the next day drug delivery service remains at a high level, and upgrade to the next day delivery in core cities such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, so that customers can enjoy more stable and convenient services.
JD Health has continued to expand its warehouse network and distribution service scope in all temperature areas across the country. It is reported that relying on 24 drug warehouses, more than 90% of the orders of JD Pharmacy can be delivered on the same day or the next day, and its cold chain distribution covers more than 300 cities nationwide. At the same time, JD Health also focuses on instant retail business, providing consumers with a service experience of "delivering medicine home in an average of 28 minutes". By the end of 2023, JD Health's instant retail business has covered more than 480 cities, cooperated with more than 120000 offline pharmacies, and can respond to user needs 24 hours a day.
In terms of medication experience, e-commerce platforms provide 24-hour pharmaceutical services for patients through Internet hospitals, contracted doctors, online consultation and other ways. Taking Ali Health as an example, by the end of March 2024, it has signed contracts with more than 220000 licensed physicians, licensed pharmacists and nutritionists to provide online health consulting services for consumers on the platform. In 2023, the daily average number of visits (excluding prescriptions) of Alibaba Health Platform will increase to more than 11000. With the help of the Internet hospital, the e-commerce platform can provide a series of services, such as online re consultation, online prescription, online purchase of innovative drugs, to facilitate patients to purchase and apply innovative drugs.
In addition, the medical e-commerce platform is also actively exploring online medical insurance payment under the guidance of policies. For example, in May 2024, the Beijing Medical Insurance Bureau announced that it was organizing JD and Meituan, two drug purchasing platforms, to test the online payment system for OTC drugs. Previously, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Liaoning, Anhui, Guangdong and other provinces and cities have explored the online medical insurance payment function. Among them, JD Health has opened online medical insurance payment in nearly 700 pharmacies in Shanghai, providing local consumers with online medical insurance purchase experience.
With the gradual completion of e-commerce platform services, patients will be more convenient to apply innovative drugs. In essence, this is a genuine way to improve the accessibility of innovative drugs, which is of great help to the penetration and sales of innovative drugs.
epilogue
The commercialization of innovative drugs in China is not as smooth as Biotech expected. Even some innovative drugs quickly enter the bottleneck of growth after initial application.
This is because there are many intermediate links and high channel costs in the commercialization of innovative drugs. For example, enterprises need to break through the barriers of pricing, payment and access one by one. For another example, when innovative pharmaceutical enterprises use more funds for traditional channels and information dissemination such as medical representatives and academic conferences in order to enter the market, their profits will be greatly limited.
At present, the rules of the game in the closed market of the pharmaceutical market have begun to change. Compared with traditional channels and schemes, more and more innovative pharmaceutical enterprises have begun to step up efforts to launch pharmaceutical e-commerce projects in Malaysia, hoping to grab dividends on the rapidly developing pharmaceutical e-commerce platform.
However, how to obtain more sales and sales, how to do a good job in marketing and promotion on the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform, and how to transmit product information more scientifically to patients all need innovative pharmaceutical enterprises to learn from scratch.
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