With technological improvement and mindset changes, the behavioral habits of the public have been transforming as well. With that, the market naturally holds higher expectations. That’s why Santen, an international pharmaceutical company specializing in ophthalmology and human eye health, is constantly seeking changes. It makes efforts to capture the market demand with agility, and actively explore to deploy the “internet+” service model.

"We will make continuous efforts to upgrade our products, services and solutions,” said Takayuki Yamada, Head of Santen China Business, when talking about the Chinese eye health market. “In this way, we can provide even higher quality services to all parties in the eye health field, so as to meet the expectations and demands of the whole society into the future." 

 

Takayuki Yamada, Head of China Business, Santen

With the socioeconomic development and the accelerated aging of society, China has already become one of the countries with the largest number of eye disease patients. Yet at the same time, patients lack awareness, with also low consultation and compliance rate. There remains a gap in demand in China’s eye health sector.

In 2022, the "14th Five-Year" National Eye Health Plan (2021-2025) was published, escalating the issue of eye health to a national strategic level. "Santen will shoulder the responsibility to join hands with more stakeholders, so as to answer the call of the government. We’ll integrate industry resources to provide better services for the patients,” said Yamada.

Bearing this goal in mind, Santen has been proactively transforming its core businesses and incubating new ones. That’s how the “Santen Ecosystem” has emerged. The system is comprised of four pillars, namely, Eye drops, Medical devices, Medical services, and New modality. "On this platform, we hope to gather all partners of the China eye health ecosystem. Together, we could improve both the quality and the quantity of eye health services, to mitigate the current pain points."
 

Santen production base in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province

“Santen Ecosystem” has spawned a series of "cross-sector" practices. In 2021 the company joined hands with Nova Vision to provide fast and convenient eye health screening services for the public. In the same year, Santen partnered with Airdoc, a company focused on artificial intelligence, to assist primary care physicians in improving the diagnostic efficiency and quality of eye diseases. In 2022, Santen established a strategic cooperation partnership with Lumenis, a specialized ophthalmic laser manufacturer, aiming to bring high-quality professional ophthalmic devices to the Chinese market.

"For sure, we have to be clear about targets. We shall not only focus on the elderly, but also pay attention to the youth patients’ eye health demand,” added Yamada. “We’ll fully utilize the ‘Santen Ecosystem’ to actively plan across the entire spectrum of eye health.”

Santen imposes high standards on the details of research and development, which is a key component of the "Santen Ecosystem." "While designing a product, we shall firstly think about a series of questions,” said Yamada. “Questions may include which kind of patient population will benefit the most. How can we better reach out to this group of people? How to maximize the advantages of our products? At the same time, Santen will also actively communicate with professionals to maximize the value of the product for the benefit of patients." 

 

Santen employee working at production facility in Suzhou

Santen continues to pay attention to industry development and social welfare. Since 1996, the company has been funding the Santen Scholarship to provide support for a wide range of academic programs for ophthalmologists in China. In this way, Santen hopes to help improve the expertise and skills of Chinese ophthalmologists. Besides, Santen has long been engaged in and supported the publication of various Expert Consensus and Guidelines in the field of eye health. Considering the imbalanced ophthalmic medical resources across different regions of China, the launch of expert consensus and guidelines will help improve the overall standard and level of the ophthalmic ecosystem.

In the eyes of Yamada, the year 2023 is important with many new plans to be implemented. Santen has been digging deeply in the Chinese market for over 30 years. It also has held a much longer-term goal. "Santen has witnessed and promoted the development of China eye health endeavor in the past. While in the future, we will continue to develop together with the Chinese eye health industry," said Yamada.