(Yicai Global) Nov. 6 -- Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical has joined hands with Alibaba Group Holding, one of the biggest Chinese names in tech, to build a center dedicated to stroke treatments in China.

The pair will leverage Alibaba Health Information Technology's big data and artificial intelligence and Takeda's expert medical resources to build the China Stroke Center, Takeda China President Shan Guohong told Yicai Global at the China International Import Expo.

A stroke is known medically as a cerebrovascular accident. It occurs when blood flow to the brain is interrupted and brain tissue is deprived of oxygen and other nutrients. The new center aims to produce a multi-disciplinary treatment and standardized services for the medical emergency.

Takeda is always working to use medical big data to build patient-oriented innovation models and make drugs more accessible to Chinese patients, Shan said. The duo will also use the internet to raise public awareness about strokes, how to prevent them and how to treat them.

Cancer in China

China has the highest incidence rate of strokes in the world, according to the World Health Organization. Only 3.3 percent of patients knew they were having a stroke and needed urgent treatment, while 9.2 percent of patients were sent to hospital after emergency calls were made. A fifth of patients receive treatments within an hour of arriving at the hospital doors, the data shows.

Takeda has been paying close attention to China's technological revolution and industrial transformation since it arrived there in 1994, Shan added. The Chinese pharma sector has undergone a series of reforms as the nation has grown into the world's second-largest economy, and Takeda is adjusting its strategy accordingly, he said.

The Tokyo-headquartered firm has increased its investment in China by over USD100 million this year to support the development of new drugs and accelerate the introduction of its own products into the country. It plans to bring seven medicines to China over the next five years to tackle problems with digestion, neuroscience and cancer.

As the only global pharma firm rooted in Asia and focused on innovating medicines, Takeda hopes to demonstrate its capabilities at the CIIE, Shan added. The first ever CIIE, an expo dedicated solely to foreign products and services, opened yesterday in Shanghai and will run until Nov. 10.

Takeda's 300 square-meter CIIE booth shows off a bunch of drugs already approved or prepped for entry into China, including those for Hodgkin's lymphoma and Crohn's disease, and a new product among a list of 48 drugs deemed as urgently needed by the China Center for Drug Evaluation. It expects to get expedited approval for the medicine, Vedolizumab, so Chinese patients can start taking it as soon as possible.

Editor: James Boynton