Chinese pharmaceutical companies are shifting more of their engagement with doctors towards artificial intelligence-powered medical platforms, seeking new ways to promote medicines and clinical research after a government crackdown on healthcare corruption made traditional hospital-based marketing more difficult.
A growing number of AI assistants designed specifically for medical professionals have entered China’s market this year, offering services similar to OpenEvidence, a US-based platform that uses AI to help doctors search medical research and clinical evidence but is not available in China.
Companies including Alibaba Health and JD Health are developing the technology as pharmaceutical manufacturers explore opportunities to reach physicians through digital platforms. Drugmakers are discussing marketing partnerships with app operators and commissioning customized services focused on particular diseases, according to technology executives who spoke to Reuters.
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The shift is creating a potential new revenue stream for China’s health technology companies, which face intense competition and subdued consumer spending. It could also reshape how pharmaceutical companies allocate marketing budgets in the world’s second-largest drug market, where tighter scrutiny of interactions between drug representatives and medical professionals has disrupted established sales practices.
For drugmakers, the appeal is not simply replacing face-to-face visits with online communication. AI platforms could provide access to doctors through tools they already use to research treatments, review clinical evidence, and make decisions about patient care.
Alibaba Health Explores Sponsored Clinical Evidence
Alibaba Health is considering a business model that would allow pharmaceutical companies to promote medical research and clinical evidence alongside AI-generated responses to doctors’ questions on its Hydrion platform.
The approach would resemble the model used by OpenEvidence, where relevant medical information can appear alongside answers generated for physicians. For pharmaceutical companies, the opportunity would be to place evidence supporting their products in front of doctors searching for information related to particular conditions or treatments.
Alibaba Health Chief Technology Officer Wang Xiangzhi told Reuters that pharmaceutical companies currently spend substantial amounts on marketing to influence doctors and encourage the adoption of their medicines.
“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.
He added that if doctors increasingly gather on a common digital platform, drugmakers could shift some of that spending online by promoting clinical evidence relevant to physicians’ questions.
Alibaba Health has not started collaborating with pharmaceutical companies on Hydrion, Wang said, but interest from both domestic and foreign drugmakers has been very strong.
The opportunity is supported by the rapid adoption of AI tools among Chinese medical professionals. Alibaba Health found that 93% of the hundreds of doctors it surveyed now use AI tools, compared with about 70% a year earlier.
That adoption is creating a potentially valuable audience for companies seeking to reach physicians.
However, if pharmaceutical companies pay to have research or product information appear in AI-generated responses, platforms will need to ensure that commercial promotion is clearly identified and does not distort the evidence presented to doctors.
Alibaba Health is not alone in seeking to commercialize physician-facing AI services.
Medical education company PICA Health has incorporated JD Health’s AI-powered Zhiyi assistant into its application. In August, the partners said they would offer pharmaceutical companies targeted digital academic promotion and physician education services aimed at doctors at the grassroots level.
Drugmakers have also held discussions with Yidu Tech about potential marketing opportunities on its Yidu Evidence platform, according to a company executive.
“They hope to have more academic endorsements, to be ranked higher in searches,” the executive told Reuters, asking not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the discussions.
Yidu Tech was not yet offering the proposed functionality, the executive said.
Other pharmaceutical companies are also examining how medical AI platforms could fit into their engagement strategies. Swiss drugmaker Roche said it explores third-party medical AI tools for direct marketing to doctors and hospitals, while Bayer said it continuously monitors technology that could help it engage healthcare professionals in a compliant manner.
The potential market extends beyond individual AI applications. Research firm Frost & Sullivan estimates that enterprise spending on digital health marketing in China will grow at a compound annual rate of 27.5% between 2027 and 2030, reaching 274.4 billion yuan, or about $41.1 billion. The estimate covers digital health marketing broadly and does not provide a separate forecast for physician-facing AI applications.
The growth outlook suggests that digital engagement could become a larger part of pharmaceutical companies’ commercial strategies.
Anti-Corruption Campaign Accelerates the Shift
The move towards digital platforms has gained urgency as China’s multiyear campaign against corruption in the healthcare sector has tightened restrictions on pharmaceutical sales representatives and their interactions with doctors and hospitals.
Authorities issued stricter measures this summer governing how employees of pharmaceutical companies provide product information to medical professionals. The campaign has made traditional hospital visits more difficult, disrupting a sales model that relied heavily on direct contact between drug representatives and physicians.
The commercial impact has already been acknowledged by companies operating in the sector. Zhejiang Xianju Pharmaceutical said in August that the new regulations had affected its sales, while a sales director at Xian Shijishengkang Pharmaceutical identified restrictions on hospital visits as a particular obstacle in July.
Digital health companies have responded by expanding services that connect pharmaceutical manufacturers with medical professionals.
Medlive Technology said in September that physician participation in academic activities had been disrupted, but its precision marketing and corporate solutions business marketed 509 healthcare customer products in the first half of 2026, an increase of about 14% from a year earlier.
The changing environment is also pushing drugmakers towards services that offer doctors more than conventional promotional material.
Gu Fei, chief executive of startup Null Hypothesis, said the traditional model built around hospitality and gift-giving was giving way to engagement through tools that support clinical work and research. The company launched its KnowS medical search platform for doctors early last year and has since secured licensing agreements with major Chinese and foreign pharmaceutical companies to develop customized academic platforms focused on specific diseases.
Gu declined to identify the customers.
From a doctor’s perspective, the value lies in gaining access to tools that improve professional work rather than receiving conventional promotional gifts.
“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 pharmaceutical companies, he added, the benefit is the opportunity to communicate with doctors.
The transition does not mean that AI platforms will automatically replace traditional pharmaceutical marketing. Instead, it offers drugmakers a way to maintain access to physicians as the regulatory environment changes, while allowing technology companies to monetise their growing medical user bases.
The longer-term test will be whether these platforms can balance commercial interests with medical credibility. Doctors need reliable, evidence-based information, while pharmaceutical companies want greater visibility for their products. If sponsored content influences how AI systems select or present clinical evidence without sufficient transparency, the platforms risk undermining the trust on which their business models depend.