Ping An Insurance Group and Shionogi (Hong Kong) have formed two joint venture (JV) companies in Shanghai and Hong Kong respectively, which will become development centres for drugs that Shionogi is developing globally – with a focus on infectious disease and central nervous system (CNS) disorders.
Based in Osaka Japan, Shionogi & Co. is a 142-year-old global, research driven pharmaceutical company dedicated to building new platforms in the healthcare area. China-based Ping An Insurance Group, on the other hand, is a leading technology-powered financial services company that focuses on delivering both financial services and healthcare services.
The two new joint venture companies namely Ping An-Shionogi Co., Ltd is based in Shanghai and Ping An-Shionogi (Hong Kong) Limited is based in Hong Kong. Both JVs will leverage on the strengths of their parent companies combining competencies in big data and AI analytical technology with deep knowledge about diseases and strong drug-discovery capabilities. They will establish a research and development platform to efficiently create high-value-added, innovative medicines and healthcare services and deliver customised solutions for customers.
To enhance pharmaceutical manufacturing and quality control, Shionogi will fuse its manufacturing and quality control technology and knowhow with Ping An's AI technology to create a new manufacturing and quality control system. The joint ventures will use AI to monitor the manufacturing and analysis in real time, and to deploy an innovative pharmaceutical manufacturing and quality control system that offers high quality and low costs.
"We are excited to have completed the joint venture agreement and to now be prepared to make a full-scale start. Ping An Group has a world-leading platform and AI technology in the healthcare field, in addition to their strength in the insurance & financial field,” said John Keller, Ph.D., senior executive officer, senior vice president, Global Business Division, Shionogi
He added: “By fusing Ping An's strengths with Shionogi's strengths as a drug discovery-oriented pharmaceutical company in this joint venture, we will work together to provide total healthcare solutions for the benefit of patients, families, healthcare professionals and society as early as possible. We believe this alliance represents a very significant step toward our goal of creating new platforms to shape the future of healthcare."
The joint ventures will be able to supply new, generic and over-the-counter drugs to customers in China via Ping An Health Cloud, an affiliate of the Group. Ping An Good Doctor is today the largest mobile medical application in China in terms of user scale, with 315.2 million registered users, 729,000 average daily consultations, and a professional network of more than 3,000 hospitals and 94,000 pharmacies by the end of 2019. It leverages Ping An Health Cloud Company Limited's in-house full-time medical team and its proprietary AI-based medical system to cover end-to-end services including 24/7 online consultation, prescription, referral, appointment, second medical opinion and drug delivery.
