Plamed

What Plamed does

Plamed Inc. (株式会社プラメド) is a Japan-based, healthcare-exclusive market research fieldwork provider founded in April 2005 and headquartered in Tokyo (with a Kyoto office). The company operates a proprietary membership panel of approximately 63,000 verified physicians across 36 medical specialties — augmented with dentists, nurses, pharmacists, veterinarians, patients, and their families — and uses this asset to deliver two core services: large-scale internet-based quantitative surveys and qualitative interview research. Its qualitative offering spans online remote, venue-based, on-site visit, and group/depth interview formats coordinated by medical-specialized interviewers.

The underlying platform is built on a multi-language web stack — C# (RazorPages and MVC), Laravel (PHP), Ruby on Rails, and Excel VBA — hosted on AWS, Heroku, and Salesforce infrastructure, supporting candidate extraction, questionnaire distribution, response management, and identity verification of registered doctors via medical license data. Annual operational throughput is approximately 1,150 internet survey projects reaching 420,000 respondents and 220 interview projects involving 2,350 interviews (2025 figures). The Point Club member site handles identity verification at registration, point accumulation, rewards redemption, and charitable donation options.

Commercially, Plamed generates revenue as a B2B professional services provider to pharmaceutical companies, academic and policy researchers, and medical device manufacturers in Japan. Pricing is project-based and not publicly disclosed. Plamed is a 100%-owned subsidiary of Intage Healthcare Co., Ltd., part of the Intage Holdings group that has consolidated physician panel management (2014) and interview survey operations (2016) into the subsidiary. Marketing is driven primarily through exhibitions at major Japanese medical society conferences and a corporate website with limited social media presence on X and Facebook.

Name

Plamed

Legal name

株式会社プラメド

Website

https://plamed.co.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

2005

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Plamed is a Japanese healthcare-exclusive market research firm, founded in 2005 and wholly-owned by Intage Healthcare, operating a proprietary 63,000-physician panel across 36 specialties to deliver quantitative surveys and qualitative interview fieldwork to pharmaceutical, academic, and medical-device clients in Japan.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Tokyo

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Healthcare Market Research Services: Plamed generates revenue by providing fieldwork services for healthcare market research. They conduct internet surveys (quantitative) and interviews (qualitative) on behalf of pharmaceutical companies, healthcare organizations, medical device companies, and academic researchers. Services include survey design support, respondent recruitment from their doctor membership network, survey distribution and collection, and interview coordination across multiple formats.
2. Doctor Membership Point Club Operation: Operates a member-only website (ポイントクラブ) for doctors where members earn points by participating in surveys and can exchange points for rewards or donate to charitable causes. This membership platform enables the primary research services.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Plamed provides B2B healthcare market research fieldwork services, conducting internet-based quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews (online remote, venue, visit, and group formats) with physicians, other healthcare professionals, patients, and their families. Services are enabled by a proprietary Point Club membership of approximately 63,000 verified doctors across 36 medical specialties, supporting annual volumes of about 1,150 survey projects (420,000 respondents) and 220 interview projects (2,350 interviews) for pharmaceutical companies, healthcare researchers, and medical device companies.

Product overview

Plamed operates as a healthcare-focused market research company providing two core research services—internet surveys (quantitative) and interview surveys (qualitative)—supported by a physician member organization called Point Club with approximately 63,000 registered doctors across 36 specialties. The company conducts field work for data collection and coordination, delivering approximately 1,150 survey projects reaching 420,000 respondents and 220 interview projects involving 2,350 interviews annually (2025 figures).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Internet Survey (Quantitative Research) (インターネット調査／定量調査)

Quantifiable outcome

• Annual capacity: ~1,150 survey projects with ~420,000 total respondents (2025)
• +1 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves11 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Dynata: Dynata is a global first-party data and market research firm operating online panels with healthcare respondent coverage. It is a broad incumbent in panel-based market research serving pharma and healthcare clients.
• IQVIA Holdings: IQVIA is a global healthcare-focused data, analytics, and market research firm with extensive physician panels and commercial research capabilities. It overlaps with Plamed in pharma market research but operates at far broader global scale.
• Kantar: Kantar is a global market research firm with established healthcare research capabilities and physician panels through its Worldpanel and Health divisions. It is a broad incumbent competitor in healthcare market research.

Direct peers

• Rakuten Insight: Rakuten Insight operates one of Japan's largest online consumer panels with healthcare and B2B survey capabilities. It competes directly with Plamed in Japanese online market research and respondent recruitment.
• Macromill Inc. Macromill is a leading Japanese online market research firm operating proprietary consumer and B2B panels, including healthcare research capabilities. It competes directly with Plamed in Japanese panel-based online research services.
• M3 Inc. M3 operates m3.com, the largest online community for physicians in Japan and globally, running proprietary physician panels for healthcare market research and marketing services. It is the most direct competitor to Plamed's physician panel-based research business in Japan.
• Schlesinger Group: Schlesinger Group is a global qualitative market research firm with deep healthcare expertise and medical interviewing capabilities across multiple formats. It directly competes with Plamed in qualitative healthcare interview research.
• Cross Marketing Inc. Cross Marketing is a Japanese market research firm with online panels and qualitative research capabilities serving healthcare and consumer clients. It competes directly with Plamed in Japanese market research fieldwork services.
• Toluna (Toluna Japan): Toluna operates global online research panels with healthcare respondent access and serves enterprise research clients including pharma. It is a direct competitor in panel-based market research with global reach.
• GMO Research & Analytics: GMO Research operates online research panels across Asia with established healthcare respondent access and panel management capabilities. It is a direct competitor in Asia-focused online panel-based market research.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/plamed
• Facebookfacebook.com/plamed.co.jp

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Plamed