By Andrew Silver
SHANGHAI, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Drugmakers in China are seizing on a boom in digital assistants that has opened up a new — and potentially more efficient — way to connect with doctors after a sweeping graft crackdown disrupted traditional engagement channels.
A wave of AI-powered apps similar to OpenEvidence — a sort of ChatGPT designed specifically for doctors, which is not available in China — has entered the market this year from companies including online healthcare giants Alibaba
Health and JD Health.
Drugmakers are racing to leverage the technology, exploring potential marketing opportunities with app makers or customising platforms around specific diseases for use by physicians, tech executives said, after Beijing's increased scrutiny of hospital visits made doctor outreach more difficult and hurt sales.
The added impetus to shift marketing budgets to digital channels could be a boon for the health-tech companies making the apps, offering a new revenue stream in a market facing rising competition and weak Chinese consumption.
Drugmakers are central to one business model Alibaba Health is considering, which would allow promoted medical research and clinical evidence to appear alongside relevant AI-generated responses to physician questions on its Hydrion app, in much the same way as on OpenEvidence, Chief Technology Officer Wang Xiangzhi told Reuters.
"Today, many pharmaceutical companies, in order to influence doctors and bring their drugs to market, need to invest a large amount in marketing budgets," Wang said.
If doctors are all gathered on a single platform, and drug companies can connect with them to promote clinical evidence that supports their products, those marketing budgets would move online, he added.
Wang said Alibaba Health has not yet begun collaborating with drugmakers on Hydrion, but both domestic and foreign firms were "very, very" interested.
MARKETING MOVES ONLINE
AI tools are rapidly gaining traction in the country's medical community, with Alibaba Health finding that 93% of the hundreds of doctors it surveyed now use them, up from around 70% a year earlier.
Research firm Frost & Sullivan estimates that total enterprise spending on digital health marketing in China — the world's second-largest pharmaceutical market after the US — will have a compound annual growth rate of 27.5% from 2027 to 2030, eventually reaching 274.4 billion yuan ($41.1 billion). It did not have figures specifically for physician-facing AI apps.
Medical education firm PICA Health has incorporated JD Health's AI-powered Zhiyi assistant into its app, and said in August that the partners would provide drugmakers with "targeted, grassroots-level digital academic promotion and physician education services".
Drugmakers have also had communications with Yidu Tech about marketing on its Yidu Evidence app, a company executive said.
"They hope to have more academic endorsements, to be ranked higher in searches," said the executive, who asked not to be identified for privacy reasons.
Yidu Tech was not yet offering such functionality, the executive said.
A representative from the China Pharmaceutical Innovation and Research Development Association, a non-profit group, declined to comment on the potential for marketing on medical AI tools.
A spokesperson for Swiss drugmaker Roche said the company explores the use of third-party medical AI tools for direct marketing to doctors and hospitals, without elaborating. Bayer said it continuously monitors developments in technology that could help it engage with healthcare professionals in a compliant manner.
PHARMA REP CRACKDOWN
A multiyear drive to root out bribery and corruption in the healthcare sector gathered pace this summer, when authorities issued stricter measures governing pharma company employees who provide information on products to doctors and hospitals.
Drugmaker Zhejiang Xianju Pharmaceutical said in August that such regulations impacted sales, while a sales director at drugmaker Xian Shijishengkang Pharmaceutical in July cited hospital visit restrictions as a particular obstacle.
Firms have stepped up digital marketing services, with Chinese provider Medlive Technology Co saying in September that although the pace of physician participation in academic activities was disrupted, it marketed 509 healthcare customer products under its precision marketing and corporate solutions in the first half of 2026, up about 14% from a year earlier.
The head of startup Null Hypothesis, which was an early entrant into AI medical search in China after launching KnowS for doctors early last year, said an old model built around hospitality and gift-giving had given way to engaging doctors through tools that support their clinical work and research.
CEO Gu Fei told Reuters that major Chinese and foreign drugmakers had licensed KnowS to build customised physician-facing "academic platforms" focused on specific diseases. He declined to identify the customers.
From a doctor's point of view, "this really gives me a new capability and helps me improve efficiency, rather than you giving me two bottles of Moutai," Gu said.
For drugmakers, "what you gain more from it is the opportunity to communicate with doctors, right?"
($1 = 6.6703 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Andrew Silver; Additional reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Kevin Buckland)
