Suzuken Co., Ltd., (head office: Nagoya City, Aichi; Chairman and Executive Officer: Hiromi Miyata; hereinafter referred to as “Suzuken”) and DOCTORS Co., Ltd. (head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Takao Yanagawa; hereinafter referred to as “DOCTORS”) hereby announce that they have established a business and capital alliance with the aim of building and promoting the medical DX platform to comprehensively support medical IT solutions as well as digital healthcare services that are accelerating in the digital health era. While digital healthcare services that are utilized in various situations in medical settings are successively appearing because of the advancement of digital technology, the way medical care and treatment should be provided is also forced to change because of the influence of COVID-19. Under such circumstances, the two companies will jointly promote a new platform business that will accelerate the distribution of digital healthcare services, which is to be new trends in the DX era, to medical institutions and patients.
Now, with the mission to support the establishment, distribution, and sales of new digital healthcare services in the DX era with the “Powers of doctors x IT,” the two companies have agreed to form the business alliance, including equity participation, to spread and expand the nationwide promotion of comprehensive digital healthcare services by combining the service of DOCTORS, which promotes medical digitalization that grasps the fundamentals from the perspective of medical professionals on-site together with active doctors, mainly with (more than 400) specialists, and Suzuken’s strong business relationship with medical institutions and its wide distribution network.
We will cooperatively contribute to society even further by accelerating the distribution of digital healthcare services.
■ Details of the business and capital alliance
The details of the business and capital alliance between Suzuken and DOCTORS are as follows. By combining active doctors of DOCTORS and Suzuken’s sales distribution network, the two companies will build a new medical DX platform, which specializes in the distribution of digital healthcare services, to accelerate the use of digital healthcare services by medical institutions and patients.
１．To build and operate the medical DX platform for the introduction and sales to medical institutions in collaboration with companies that provide a diversity of digital healthcare services.
２．By using this platform to provide digital healthcare services nationwide, which are useful for medical institutions, the treatment of patients, and medical practices.
３．To contribute to the further development of community-based integrated care and community medicine by leveraging digital healthcare services.
■ About Suzuken
The Suzuken group, founded in 1932 and listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is one of Japan’s leading companies that develops pharmaceutical distribution and logistics services. Setting “Health Creation” as its business domain, Suzuken is comprehensively expanding businesses related to medical care and health, not only in its core business of wholesale of ethical pharmaceuticals but also in research, development, and manufacturing of new medicinal products and support for pharmaceutical manufacturers, insurance pharmacies, and nursing. In addition, Suzuken is the only company in the pharmaceutical wholesale business that has a medical distribution platform and a distribution function covering pharmaceutical manufacturers and wholesalers to medical institutions and insurance pharmacies. It has the strength to provide a one-stop service to respond to diversified and sophisticated medical distribution needs from the perspective of manufacturers, medical institutions, insurance pharmacies, and patients. The Suzuken group’s annual net sales amount to over two trillion yen. The head office is located in Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, and it has approximately 15,000 employees.
■ About DOCTORS
DOCTORS is aiming to build an online medical care support platform that accelerates the development of community medicine and the digitalization of medical care with the “Powers of doctors x IT.” Active doctors, mainly consisting of specialists, and consultants, who are well-versed in medical and healthcare businesses, provide one-stop support from the planning and development of digital healthcare services to distribution and sales to medical institutions by which the full-fledged commercialization of digital healthcare services with an exit strategy and sustainability will be achieved. DOCTORS established its original screening criteria and guidelines and selected active doctors to provide advice based on their own specialties and experiences for clients to be able to create services in line with medical reality and to increase the probability of success in their business.
[Overview of Suzuken Co., Ltd.]
Company name: Suzuken Co., Ltd.
Representative: Hiromi Miyata, Chairman and Executive Officer
Location: 8 Higashi Kataha-machi, Higashi-ku, Nagoya City, Aichi
Date of establishment: August 10, 1946
Business description: Sales of ethical pharmaceuticals, reagents, medical equipment, medical materials, and food products, as well as development and manufacturing of medical equipment
URL: https://www.suzuken.co.jp/
[About DOCTORS]
Company name: DOCTORS Co., Ltd.
Representative: Takao Yanagawa, President & CEO
Head office: 4F Kintetsu Ginza Chuodori Building III, 1-7-10 Shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0004
Date of establishment: September 2016 (Business launched in October 2019)
Business description:
Providing Doctors Cloud™, support for the commercialization of companies’ digital healthcare services by leveraging a network of active expert doctors based on its own guidelines, Doctors Station™, medical-collaborative online medical support services that support patients’ behavior before medical examinations with Reception at Clinic and Reception at Hospital.
URL：https://doctors-inc.jp/
