Singapore Paincare brings Western treatment and TCM together in new Chinese JV

MEDICAL services group Singapore Paincare Holdings (SPCH) is partnering Chinese community hospital operator Puxiang Healthcare to bring its specialist pain-care treatments to China and widen its pool of patients.

The Catalist-listed group has signed a non-exhaustive, non-binding term sheet with Beijing Puxiang Hospital Investment Management Co (BPHIM), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Puxiang Healthcare, to set up a joint venture (JV) company, PuXin Pain Technology Hospital Management Company.

SPCH will own 49 per cent of the JV, with BPHIM holding the remaining 51 per cent.

SPCH executive director and chief executive Dr Bernard Lee said on Tuesday (Jul 4) that the move will enable the group to capture a whole new market. 

It will also allow the company to offer its proprietary pain-care treatments alongside the existing traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) pain treatments in Puxiang Healthcare’s 15 community hospitals, he said.

Under this agreement, BPHIM will identify a team of about 30 doctors to be trained to deliver SPCH’s treatment regimen and methodologies. This will then be offered in Puxiang Healthcare’s community hospitals in Beijing, Hebei and Tianjin. 

SPCH said this partnership – its first overseas foray – will raise its profile in the Chinese market, which has been mostly untapped by the group. 

Only about 1 per cent to 2 per cent of SPCH’s medical tourists come from China, Dr Lee said. Most of the group’s foreign patients, which accounted for about 30 per cent of its patients before the pandemic, come from Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. 

After the borders reopened, medical tourists now make up about 20 per cent of SPCH’s patients, he added. 

Pointing to its large and rapidly ageing population, Dr Lee described China as a “compelling” country for SPCH’s expansion plans.

The proposed JV comes just weeks after SPCH on Jun 14 announced that subsidiary Singapore Paincare Capital will invest 40 million yuan (S$7.6 million) for 2.8 million new Series A+ preferred shares in Puxiang Healthcare. This translates to a 2.26 per cent stake in the Chinese hospital operator. 

Working with an established company such as Puxiang Healthcare, which has operated hospitals in China since 2019, lowers the barrier of entry for SPCH into the market, said Dr Lee. 

Puxiang’s network of community hospitals also enables the group to offer its Western treatment interventions to a patient pool that may not be familiar with these forms of care, he added. 

“We will be getting the pain doctors to come in (for training) and Puxiang will lead the team as we transfer our intellectual property and management skills… to better provide pain care outside TCM,” he said. 

Dr Lee said the joint venture will be “favourable” in terms of revenue growth, as the hospital operator has an established network of hospitals and intends to add more.

Xu Hua Yong, president of Puxiang Healthcare, said the operator’s year-end target is to run more than 20 hospitals in total. 

The new hospitals will also send doctors for training under this JV, said Xu. 

The transfer of medical knowledge may later be applied both ways. Dr Lee hopes that SPCH’s local TCM arm will eventually be able to tap into Puxiang’s expertise and upgrade its offerings.

“This (JV) is the first step in our collaboration,” he said. 

SPCH’s shares closed flat at S$0.176 on Thursday, after the company lifted its trading halt.