by Vivian Yang

JD Health launched a pharmacy consulting service online on June 28^th, providing users with more timely and professional pharmaceutical care in collaboration with experienced clinical pharmacists from offline hospitals.

The “Pharmacy Clinic” portal is integrated into JD Health’s App. Its scope of services ranges from evaluation of drug efficacy, recommendation for drug use optimization, follow-up of drug treatment, popularization of pharmaceutical knowledge and more.

Target users of the services include people who take a variety of medicines for chronic diseases treatment, who are using special drugs such as with special dosages or drug delivery devices, who are in special physical states such as during pregnancy, breastfeeding, or with hepatic and renal insufficiency and others, and who experience adverse drug reactions that need pharmacist’s monitoring and interpretation.

Data from China’s National Medical Products Administration showed that as of the end of this February, there are about 638.700 licensed pharmacists in the country, a number that is out of proportion to the size of China’s population of more than 1 billion people.

“It is imperative to move forward the digital transformation of pharmaceutical services,” said Jiawei Wang, deputy director of the Chinese Pharmacists Association. “By leveraging technological innovation for integrated outpatient service both online and offline and deepening home-based service, the social value of pharmacists can be maximized.”

A survey conducted by the West China Hospital of Sichuan University and cited in China Pharmaceutical E-Commerce Industry Research Report 2022, showed that patients have strong demand for online pharmaceutical services under the impact of the pandemic. Among the respondents, 91.6 percent prefer to be reminded by medication software; and 53.4 percent prefer to ask a pharmacist questions online, as opposed to 25.9 percent who choose to get advice from the drug counters in hospitals for clinical pharmacy questions.

Ever since the founding of JD Pharmacy, the omnichannel pharmaceutical retail business of JD Health, in 2016, the company has begun to offer online pharmacist consultations to its customers, becoming the first service center of its kind with COPC (Customer Operations Performance Center) standards and 100 percent licensed pharmacists. Meanwhile, JD Pharmacy actively adopts AI technology in building its smart pharmaceutical knowledge base and solutions, creating another layer of risk control for drug use in addition to doctors’ advice.

Yiting Wang, general manager of the pharmaceutical department of JD Health, noted that JD Health’s “Pharmacy Clinic” is designed to provide more professional, convenient, consistent and in-depth pharmaceutical service to meet users’ personalized drug use needs at the minimum cost.

The company will continue to build its pharmaceutical service capabilities that can help improve the distribution of medical resources across China and meet people’s growing health needs, contributing to the “Health China 2030” plan with the goal to provide better health services to every citizen, Wang added.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

 

by Vivian Yang

China’s eye-care products and services market is predicted to be the next big thing, according to a report issued by JD.com’s Consumption and Industrial Development Research Institute on June 20^th.

According to the report, the company’s sales data from this January to May showed that the amount of online ophthalmic consultations on JD Health rose over 90 percent YoY, and transaction volume of relevant products for internal administration and external use increased by 173 percent and 210 percent YoY respectively.

The rapid expansion of consumer groups and their use cases have propelled the boom, said Zhenzhen Chai, senior researcher of the institute, noting that people’s heavy use of digital products has led to rising eye problems such as myopia, eye fatigue and dry eyes among all age groups, who desire new treatments that more effectively treat the conditions.

Not only are elderly people seeking eye health support on JD Health; students (16 percent) and office workers (25 percent) who spend long hours watching screens compose a large part of consumers for eye-care products, also account for a significant portion of customers. They need both long-term and convenient products that can be applied at any time – in homes, offices, schools, for exercising outdoors, and while driving and other scenarios. This is widening the market for product makers to improve and extend their product ecosystem while ensuring their quality and safety given the particularity of eye use, said Zhen.

In terms of product preferences from different age groups, younger people choose more products for external use with steam eye masks, eye massagers and warm eye masks being the top three products, with 501 percent, 111 percent and 109 percent YoY sales increases respectively.

Consumers from China’s fifth-tier cities and below are the largest group of eye-care product shoppers on JD.com, representing 36 percent of all users; and people from the first to fourth-tier cities range from 22 to 9 percent respectively.

At the same time, people of a wider age spectrum are becoming accustomed to asking for an ophthalmologist online before going to the hospital, with 42 percent of users aged from 26 to 35, and 10 percent from 46 to 55. The role of telemedicine with AI technology in triage and assisting the whole process of health management has been further acknowledged on the market.

According to the report, the most popular eye care services booked on JD Health are femtosecond laser surgery for myopia, prescription for Ortho-K lenses, and the examination service before ophthalmic surgery.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

by Vivian Yang

Over 1,500 nutrition and nourishment brands doubled their year-on-year transaction volume on JD Health during this year’s 618 shopping festival, and the number of products that achieved sales of over RMB 10 million yuan increased by 200 percent YoY, according to the company’s end-of-campaign report.

This year‘s JD618 Grand Promotion offered a broader range of health product categories tending to different needs of consumers, with remarkable sales performance seen in the categories of bone health, nutrition products for infants, vitamins and mineral products, food for special medical purposes, and bird nests, the report noted.

For example, the 18-day sales data from June 1 to 18 showed that the transaction volume of functional beverage and healthy tea products on JD Health increased 12-fold and 6-fold YoY respectively. The transaction volume of probiotics, infant DHA, lutein, and meal replacement smoothies each increased 300 percent.

NEMANS’ DHA capsules, BY-HEALTH’s protein powder and Harbin Pharmaceutical Group’s calcium, iron and zinc oral liquid became the top three best-sellers under the nutrition product category. By-Health, Swisse and Tong Ren Tang topped the ranks of best-selling brands. Nestle Health Science, Nutricia and Abbott Laboratories are the most popular nutrition-specialized brands.

Driven by JD’s responsible consumption program known as the “Green Impact Initiative”, 700 kinds of nutrition and nourishment products are qualified and green-labeled as environmentally friendly, which is part of a long-term effort to guide consumers to shop for their health as well as the health of the earth.

Additionally, thanks to JD’s online to offline service that is connected with a vast network of physical supermarkets and drug stores, JD Health is able to rapidly respond to consumers’ urgent needs and deliver health products to their doorsteps within hours. During this year’s 618 shopping festival, a Beijing-based mother made an urgent request on JD Health for a bottle of special infant formula, which was delivered to her home within 30 minutes.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)