ShanghaiMay 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — On May 14, 2026, at the Shanghai National Exhibition and Convention Center on the banks of the Huangpu River, alongside the grand convening of the “Special Forum on Omnichannel Marketing Models for Innovative Drug Launches,” the “Healthy China Heart • Guarding Heart Health” initiative, organized by Shanghai Hutchison Pharmaceuticals, successfully held the launch ceremony for the 2026 Chronic Disease Management Elite Empowerment Competition and the release of the Pharmacist Declaration. From individual empowerment to wide-area dissemination, this industry benchmark event, held consecutively for four years, has sounded the clarion call “New Voice of Chronic Diseases • Building a Heart Defense Line” in the inaugural year of the “15th Five-Year Plan,” opening a new chapter in the transformation of chronic disease management from professional venues to thousands of households.
Breaking the Grim Situation of Chronic Diseases, Pharmacist Declaration Defines Professional Responsibility
Currently, China is at a critical juncture in laying the foundation for high-quality development of the pharmaceutical and health industry during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period. Despite accelerated review and approval processes and the intensive launch of new drugs, chronic disease prevention and control still face numerous challenges—the number of confirmed chronic disease patients nationwide has exceeded 400 million, with chronic disease deaths accounting for over 80% of total resident deaths, placing an increasingly heavy burden on the healthcare system.
At the same time, the deepening of medical insurance cost control, the normalization of volume-based procurement, and the continuous acceleration of prescription outflow are profoundly reshaping the operational logic of pharmaceutical retail terminals. Both the “Healthy China 2030” Planning Outline and the recently issued “Special Action Plan for Promoting Healthy Consumption” jointly released by 12 national departments have elevated the forward shift of chronic disease management and the leveraging of professional advantages of licensed pharmacists in retail pharmacies to a strategic level. Leveraging their network advantages covering urban and rural areas, retail pharmacies have become indispensable “health gatekeepers” in the tiered diagnosis and treatment system, with their role undergoing a deep transformation from mere drug suppliers to full-cycle health managers integrating “prevention-monitoring-intervention-follow-up.”
Against this backdrop, the launch ceremony site witnessed its most solemn moment. Leaders and industry guests, including Sun Yan, Chairman of the Pharmaceutical Economics Newspaper; Qiu Guohua, Vice President and Secretary-General of the Shanghai Licensed Pharmacist Association; Zhang Shucai, Vice President of Shanghai Hutchison Pharmaceuticals and General Manager of Shanghai Pharma Hutchison Pharmaceutical Sales Co., Ltd.; Chen Liqing, Marketing Director of Shanghai Hutchison Pharmaceuticals; Wang Donghui, Deputy General Manager of Shanghai Pharma Retail Business Development Center and Deputy General Manager of Shanghai Huashi Pharmacy Co., Ltd.; and Wang Tao, Vice President of Fangzhou Jianke, gathered together to jointly pull the heart-shaped hourglass launch platform, symbolizing the inheritance of responsibility and the launch of hope, officially announcing the commencement of the 2026 Chronic Disease Management Elite Empowerment Competition.
Subsequently, eight outstanding licensed pharmacist representatives from across the country, led by a reciter, raised red declaration booklets and recited in unison the “New Voice of Chronic Diseases • Building a Heart Defense Line” Pharmacist Declaration. The vows echoed through the venue, with all attendees standing in witness. This was not only a solemn commitment from the eight representatives but also a collective response from hundreds of thousands of chronic disease managers nationwide to their professional mission—they have stepped from behind-the-scenes drug dispensers to the forefront, becoming managers of medication use, popularizers of chronic disease knowledge, and guides for healthy habits. As societal communication methods undergo fundamental changes, the professional warmth of pharmacists needs to be felt by more people, and this declaration marks the most resolute professional tone-setting in the wave of industry transformation.
From Empowerment to Dissemination, Ushering in a New Revolution in Chronic Disease Management
If the Pharmacist Declaration establishes a professional benchmark for the industry, then the comprehensive upgrade of the 2026 “Healthy China Heart” activity provides this professionalism with wings for wide-area dissemination, enabling it to truly reach thousands of households.
Unlike previous editions that focused on offline chronic disease knowledge competitions, professional training, and the distribution of prevention manuals, this year’s Elite Empowerment Competition explicitly shifts from “individual empowerment” to “wide-area dissemination,” launching a new revolution in chronic disease management that allows the professional voices of every chronic disease manager to be transmitted through social platforms. According to the activity plan, while maintaining systematic professional training, this year’s event will fully introduce new modules such as new media matrix operations training and real-scenario health science content creation, encouraging and empowering licensed pharmacists to transform from passive knowledge recipients into active health content creators and community disseminators. This means that when a pharmacist uses plain language on social platforms to explain heart-protecting health knowledge or popularize early signs of cardiovascular diseases, their professional voice is no longer confined to the pharmacy counter but reaches hundreds or thousands of families through trust-based social relationships. This networked dissemination model, with individuals as dissemination nodes, professional trust as the bond, and social platforms as the carrier, is the key pathway to solving the core dilemma of “from information accessibility to trust accessibility” in the fields of innovative drugs and chronic disease management, truly activating and energizing the “health stations” of retail pharmacies across the country.
As the initiator and exclusive partner of this event for four consecutive years, Shanghai Hutchison Pharmaceuticals has consistently played a leading role on this exploratory path. Zhang Shucai, Vice President of Shanghai Hutchison Pharmaceuticals, pointed out: “In today’s era of profound industry transformation, the depth and breadth of industry-commerce collaboration will define the future of the sector. Hutchison Pharmaceuticals always adheres to the principle of ‘building a value symbiosis anchored by patient needs.’ Through industry-commerce collaborative projects like ‘Healthy China Heart,’ we connect upstream R&D and production with downstream terminal services, helping retail pharmacies evolve from drug ‘handlers’ into community health management experts.” This philosophy is underpinned by a solid product foundation—the company’s national confidential product, Shexiang Baoxin Pill, supported by large-scale evidence-based medical studies such as the MUST study and favorable clinical efficacy, has become a recommended treatment for coronary heart disease in 50 authoritative guidelines and expert consensus, performing strongly across hospital and non-hospital terminal markets. However, the company understands that the ultimate value of a good drug lies in ensuring patients use it correctly and effectively. Therefore, while continuously delivering product value, Shanghai Hutchison Pharmaceuticals is also committed to collaborating with major national chain pharmacies to create a new service ecosystem that integrates online and offline channels, blending professional knowledge with social dissemination, tailored to the complex scenarios of chronic disease management.
From the inaugural 2023 “Healthy China Heart” search for the best chronic disease consultant, to the 2024 “Release the Strongest Voice of Guardianship” pharmacist oath relay, to the 2025 chronic disease management knowledge challenge building a knowledge defense line, and finally to the 2026 comprehensive embrace of new media empowerment and wide-area dissemination strategy upgrade, this event has witnessed and driven the iterative evolution of China’s retail pharmacies. Amid the waves of industry change, when policy drivers, technological developments, and evolving disease demands resonate, forging the future with professionalism and opening new chapters through collaboration represents the strongest engine for the pharmaceutical industry to anchor high-quality development and jointly march toward the grand goal of “Healthy China 2030.” It is anticipated that with the in-depth implementation of the 2026 Chronic Disease Management Elite Empowerment Competition, more and more chronic disease patients will benefit, and the professional value of more licensed pharmacists will be seen and trusted, allowing the sparks of chronic disease management to eventually ignite a prairie fire.
