Takeda lauds biz opportunities in China

Referring to China as a global innovation hub of digital healthcare, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd will enhance ties with partners in the country and bring more innovation outcomes from China to the world, said a senior global executive of the company.

Sean Shan, senior vice-president of Takeda and president of Takeda China, said: "We believe China has quite a unique opportunity for digital transformation. We have a huge market in China and a very strong infrastructure in the digital area, and we are quite good at innovating from 1 to n (sometimes referred to as one-to-many).

"Working with local partners, we want to bring our digital and innovation outcomes to China, and bring our local innovation force together to introduce such innovations from China to the rest of the world as well. I believe, in China in the next 10 years, we could see some outcome from this kind of ambition."

Takeda initiated TakedaSpark in 2021 — an open innovation incubator that brings together high-tech and local partners to explore new healthcare solutions and scaled landing application scenarios through collaboration and co-creation.

As of October, TakedaSpark had attracted more than 200 domestic ventures, including companies engaging in big data, artificial intelligence and healthcare.

Having established cooperation with global management consulting company Accenture as well as Amazon Web Services, Takeda announced during the second Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province in November that it had teamed up with global accounting firm PwC and the Shanghai Biomedical Transformation Fund to further tap the digital healthcare market.

"With the expanded collaboration in China's digital healthcare ecosystem, we believe that in the future, we will have more opportunities to develop more digital solutions for the Chinese market," Shan said.

According to a report co-released by Takeda and its partners, China's digital healthcare sector has been gaining traction in recent years, with homegrown digital healthcare products and solutions coming out one after another.

According to the list unveiled by the National Medical Products Administration, China currently has 26 registered AI-enabled medical devices.

China has become a major hub for digital healthcare innovation, thanks to rising healthcare demand and acceptance of digital technologies, favorable governmental policies, and an active capital and innovative ecosystem, the report said.

Hong Yong, an associate research fellow at the e-commerce research institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said: "China has become a global innovation hub for digital healthcare. Its innovation outcomes in digital healthcare are gaining increasing international acknowledgment, attracting more and more multinational corporations to create partnerships or make investments."

Zhu Keli, founding director of the China Institute of New Economy, said: "Through joining hands with local partners, MNCs are able to quickly integrate into the local market and gain more business opportunities. Meanwhile, their collaboration complements each other's advantages, jointly promoting the high-quality development of China's digital healthcare ecosystem."

Looking ahead, Shan said: "Huge amounts of data need time to be unified and standardized. We need to build up a mechanism to make currently isolated data linked up and used in a safe and efficient way. Meanwhile, from a policy perspective, clearer policy guidance is needed on how to define, cluster and approve digital innovative products, as well as improve the reimbursement process."

In the future, through deepening collaboration with local partners, Takeda plans to continue to invest in data, digital modalities and related technology to drive its growth in China at a pace that is expected to outperform the market average over the medium to long-term horizon, said the company.

zhengyiran@chinadaily.com.cn