US health company Kenvue upgrades cooperation with Chinese drugstore chain

As China continues to create more favorable conditions for high-level opening-up and attracting global capital, Kenvue Inc, a United States-based consumer health company, and Shenzhen Nepstar Medical Co Ltd, a major Chinese drugstore chain, announced a comprehensive upgrade of their strategic cooperation on Tuesday, with a focus on the "big health" sector.

The concept of "big health" integrates medical care with wellness, disease prevention, healthy living and lifestyle management.

Through product and service innovations, they will jointly explore new models for the consumer health industry and build an integrated product and service ecosystem for consumers.

Gift Arpaporn Samabhandhu, president of Kenvue China, said that under the guidance of the Healthy China 2030 initiative, the focus on public health is shifting from "disease-centered" to "health-centered", bringing new opportunities for the development of the consumer health industry.

The Healthy China 2030 blueprint was unveiled in 2016 to achieve health targets aligned with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals.

"With the optimization of policy environment, improvement of socio-economic levels, increased public health awareness, expanded aging population and upgraded consumption among younger groups as driving factors, we expect the potential of the consumer health market will be further unleashed," said Samabhandhu.

She said this also prompts companies to evolve existing business models and explore how to better meet consumers' health needs, seize market growth opportunities and thus promote the high-quality development of the entire consumer health industry.

Take oral health for example, as the first step in deepening strategic cooperation, Kenvue and Shenzhen Nepstar announced last week, the "Love Teeth Day". They will establish oral health centers in Shenzhen Nepstar’s stores, providing both oral health knowledge and products to consumers.

Previously, Kenvue and Shenzhen Nepstar have been cooperating in the over-the-counter (OTC) drug field in China for many years. This strategic cooperation upgrade extends their collaboration to the realm of daily care products, and the health and beauty sector.

OTC drugs are medications that can be purchased without a prescription from a healthcare professional.

Kenvue, formerly known as the consumer healthcare division of the US multinational corporation Johnson & Johnson, to date owns brands such as Motrin, Tylenol and Listerine, encompassing categories like medicines, medical devices, health supplements, consumer goods and cosmetics.