ITOCHU Announces Capital and Business Alliance with DOCQUITY, Managing Southeast Asia's Largest Social Network for Physicians

February 28, 2019

ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Yoshihisa Suzuki, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it will enter into a capital and business alliance with DOCQUITY HOLDINGS PTE. LTD. (headquartered in Singapore, Indranil Roychowdhury, CEO; hereinafter “DOCQUITY”) as a strategic business partner, which involves expanding sales of services and developing business as well as funding US$6 million as a lead investor in the third-party allocation of Series B shares conducted by DOCQUITY, which has developed a social network business exclusively for medical staff (physicians and others) in Southeast Asia.

Medical science is constantly advancing and a number of new findings have been discovered about various diseases. Accordingly, new treatments, medicines and medical devices have been developed day after day. On the other hand, when medical professionals examine patients they apply all of their knowledge and skills acquired through specialized education for a fixed period. In Indonesia, for example, medical professionals are very busy because they see 200 to 300 patients a day during the busiest season. Therefore, they only have a limited amount of time to obtain the latest medical and drug information and minimal opportunities to participate in academic meetings and workshops. There is a wide digital divide on medical information, especially between developed countries and developing countries in Southeast Asia, where a compelling need exists for information on advanced medicine and drugs.

DOCQUITY provides “docquity,” a social network platform from which medical personnel can access useful and reliable up-to-date medical information anytime and anywhere with a sense of security. It has over 80,000 members. In Indonesia, where “docquity” has gained the most popularity, more than 50% of physicians have registered for the service. The service is offered in four countries, including the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand. It allows physicians to share clinical experiences and exchange views across countries to collect five or more opinions per case (on average) from specialists with whom they cannot have a chance to ask for advice through their routine work. “docquity” helps reduce the digital divide among countries and regions, resulting in better medical care for more patients.

Images related to the service

In addition, “docquity” is an online service that provides drug information offered by pharmaceutical companies as well as CME, a required educational program essential for the renewal of a physician's license in Southeast Asia. The service can help reduce the burden on busy physicians in terms of cost and time—it is free and requires one-fourteenth of the time compared to a regular CME seminar.

Based on the capital and business alliance, ITOCHU will introduce DOCQUITY’s service to pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers that have developed business in Asia, and help disseminate information on excellent Japanese medical technologies and drugs to the world. Additionally, in order to support the expansion of DOCQUITY’s social network platform, ITOCHU will facilitate an increase in members through hospital groups in Asia, such as OUE Lippo Healthcare Limited (headquartered in Singapore), with which ITOCHU has a capital and business alliance. ITOCHU will continuously position medical healthcare as its focus and proactively develop business in Asia, which is a growth market.

  • *CME: Continuing Medical Education
  • *CPD: Continuing Professional Development

DOCQUITY HOLDINGS PTE. LTD.

Office Singapore (head office), India (technology base)
CEO Indranil Roychowdhury
Established February 2017 (founded in 2013)
Business description Manages a social network platform dedicated to medical staff
URL https://docquity.com/