United Film Group dropped the surgical robot track, and the demand for domestic alternatives triggered a new wave of capital pursuit

The United Film Group dropped a son on the surgical robot track.

Recently, the "Three-dimensional Image Navigation Surgical Robot Whole Machine System Research and Development Project" cooperated by Tongji Hospital of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Wuhan Lianying Zhirong Medical Technology Co., Ltd. was officially launched. Wuhan Lianying Zhirong Medical Technology Co., Ltd., a holding subsidiary of Lianying Group, was unveiled as the lead unit, which is another subdivision of the business developed by Lianying Group after medical imaging and radiotherapy equipment, AI imaging, life science instruments, precision medical imaging centers, and medical chips.

Wuhan Lianying Zhirong Medical Technology Co., Ltd. was established on February 27, 2019, and the legal representative is Xie Qiang. In order to understand the planning of the layout of the surgical robot track of United Film Zhirong, the reporter of China Times wrote to United Film Zhirong, and the other party replied: "The company is still immersed in the research and development stage. ”

In this regard, Chen Jianguo, a business partner of Hejun Pharmaceutical Medical Division, told the China Times reporter: "In the past two years, with policy encouragement and the development needs of the industry, more and more medical device companies have tried to develop surgical robot business. The reasons are mainly two aspects: one is that enterprises expand new service types and increase profit opportunities based on the effective extension of the original business; on the other hand, the surgical robot market is becoming more and more mature, the clinical superiority is significant, the degree of monopoly of imported brands is high, and the domestic head brand is scarce. ”

Instrument leaders have ventured into the field of surgical robots

The surgical robot business laid out by United Film Group first entered the public eye in April this year.

On April 11, the official website of United Film Medical announced the unveiling of Wuhan ABP. The Group intends to invest 5 billion yuan to develop and produce advanced medical equipment such as high-end medical imaging equipment and core components, surgical robots, medical wearable devices, etc., to help diagnose and treat major and difficult diseases, and coordinate upstream and downstream industrial resources to promote the autonomy and controllability of the entire industrial chain.

It is reported that the team of Ding Han, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and dean of the School of Mechanical Science and Engineering of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Chen Xiaoping, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the team of Tongji Hospital affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, have carried out strategic cooperation to explore the application of inclusive robots and surgical robots in the medical field and promote the development of medical robot technology and industry.

It is understood that Tongji Hospital, as the main unit of the National Major Public Health Event Medical Center and the first batch of national medical center "counseling" creation units, in recent years, has vigorously promoted the cooperation between hospitals and enterprises, adhered to the orientation of clinical needs, determined the direction and focus of scientific research and innovation, gathered superior resources, and has carried out a number of medical and industrial cooperation projects combined with major research projects such as cerebral hemorrhage minimally invasive surgical robots, benign prostatic hyperplasia thulium laser minimally invasive surgical robots, and has given full play to its leading role.

In fact, there is more than one enterprise from medical device cross-border surgical robots. Previously, the heart stent company minimally invasive, bone and joint instrument company Weigao have entered the research and development of surgical robots. Chen Jianguo believes: "The reasons for attracting enterprises to enter the market are more complicated. It is composed of policy dividends, market prospects, and business profits. ”

An unnamed urologist told the China Times reporter: "At present, surgical robots are mainly concentrated in three application areas: endoscopy, orthopedics and vascular. "The surgical robot can overcome the technical defects such as low traditional surgical positioning accuracy, long surgical time, easy fatigue of the operator, lack of three-dimensional medical image navigation, etc., significantly improve the operation accuracy and shorten the surgical time; and meet the current development needs of minimally invasive surgical surgery, with fast patient recovery speed, good clinical prognosis, short hospitalization period, and greatly optimize the bed turnover rate." Most of the equipment is controlled by remote rods to improve the learning efficiency of doctors for complex surgeries, and to a certain extent, it solves the difficulty of low accessibility of domestic high-quality medical resources. ”

From October 23, 2021, robot-assisted orthopedic surgery will enter the Beijing Class A medical insurance payment directory (100% reimbursable), and one-time robot-specific instruments will be paid by Beijing Class B medical insurance (partially reimbursed). "Entering health insurance is crucial to stimulating research brought about by medical innovation projects. Failure to enter health insurance is the main driving force behind the lack of sales of many products of the same type after listing. At the beginning of the product listing, relying on performance characteristics and forward-looking advantages, a certain market increment can be obtained. However, in the long run, the slowdown effect of patients using products at their own expense on market growth is still more obvious. Chen Jianguo further said.

The rapid growth of the market has triggered the pursuit of capital

With the development of global digital medicine, the global surgical robot industry has developed rapidly and the market scale has expanded rapidly. According to data from the Head Leopard Research Institute, the global surgical robot market size grew from $3.40 billion to $5.57 billion from $3.40 billion to $5.57 billion from 2015 to 2019, with a compound annual growth rate of 13.1%; it is expected that in the next five years, the global surgical robot industry will continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 19.0%, and the market size will reach $13.29 billion by 2024.

Although the market is growing rapidly, the market penetration rate of domestic surgical robots is low. According to the research report released by Zhiyan Consulting, from 2015 to 2020, the size of China's surgical robot market increased from 92 million US dollars to 425 million US dollars (about 2.76 billion yuan), with a compound annual growth rate of 35.7%. In 2020, China's surgical robot market accounted for 5.1% of the global market share.

Even so, the enthusiasm of the capital market for surgical robots continues to rise. According to Tianyan, a total of 11 companies focusing on the development of surgical robots completed financing from October to November this year. In the first four months of 2021, at least 5 financing incidents have occurred in the field of domestic orthopedic surgical robots, covering different categories such as trauma, joints, and spine. And Yida Health, Xinwei Medical, Xianruida and other enterprises have launched an impact on the capital market.

This year, xinjunte, shurui, Jingfeng medical, Changmugu, Yuanhua Intelligent, Ruilongo, Jianjia Robot and other enterprises have included softbank, Sequoia China, Shunwei Capital and other well-known investment banks, many A or B rounds of financing are above hundreds of millions of dollars, Meituan Dragon Ball, Meridon and other enterprises and Sinopharm Capital have entered the surgical robot market.

In addition to policies and capital, whether it can compete with foreign enterprises is the main difficulty facing the development of surgical robot enterprises in China.

In 1987, the Stanford Institute, together with engineers and surgeons, invented the "Remote Surgery System" (SRISystem) and China's medical robot industry started in 1997, and China completed the first robotic surgery. Until 2010, the first medical robot orthopedic navigation robot with completely independent intellectual property rights obtained the national medical device registration license and was put into clinical use.

An analysis in the January 2020 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed that as many as 15 percent of general surgeries are now likely to be performed with the help of robots. In 6 years, this proportion has increased by 13%. This means that the position of surgical robots in clinical applications is increasing day by day.

So far, the surgical robot market is still monopolized by foreign brands. According to Frost & Sullivan data, the global surgical robot market is sorted by market size and can be divided into five major markets: laparoscopic surgical robot market, orthopedic robot, pan-vascular robot, transnatural cavity surgical robot, and other surgical robot market. Foreign giants such as Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, and Syke have integrated their own systems through mergers and acquisitions, and their market share is in the forefront.

In addition, surgical robots are highly intelligent medical devices, and the core components not only need high performance, but also high stability and safety. From a structural point of view, the surgical robot is mainly composed of a control system, a drive system and an execution system, corresponding to the three core components of the servo motor, reducer and controller. From a cost perspective, upstream core components account for more than 60% of the cost of robots.

Dependence on imports of raw materials is the main factor restricting the development of China's surgical robot industry. Compared with developed countries, the technical level of China's three core components has a large gap, it is difficult to meet the production needs of midstream enterprises, so the three core components are mainly imported from developed countries such as the United States, Japan and Germany, and the overall bargaining power is low.

"Domestic surgical robot enterprises, opportunities and challenges coexist. Enterprises that take the lead in breaking the monopoly of foreign brands will be able to obtain substantial market dividends. Chinese companies still have a long way to go on this subdivision track. Chen Jianguo sighed.

Responsible Editor: Fang Fengjiao Editor-in-Chief: Chen Yanpeng