(Image source: Visual China)
On November 5, the first day of the opening of the 6th China International Import Expo (hereinafter referred to as the "Expo"), a number of "world premieres", "Asian premieres" and "China premieres" products gathered at the Expo.
As one of the six exhibition areas of the enterprise exhibition, the medical device and medical health care exhibition area, the world's top ten medical device companies and ten Fortune 500 pharmaceutical companies collectively appeared. Walking into this exhibition area, you will find some new changes:
After Novartis spun off its generic drug business, it debuted as a pharmaceutical company with a full focus on innovative drugs; GE Healthcare debuted as an independent listed brand at the CIIE after being spun off from GE Group. Johnson & Johnson completed the spin-off of the consumer health business and rebranded the brand, discontinuing the 135-year-old brand identity and unveiling it with a new logo; The pharmaceutical and medical device industry, which is known for its science and rigor, has always liked blue elements, and this year, there are more and more relatively lively purple elements in the exhibition area.
Like previous CIIEs, the "first launch" and "first exhibition" are the standard configuration of the medical device and medical and health care exhibition area, and the CIIE has also become a high-level "show" for new products in the global medical industry.
GE Healthcare, a full-time student, exhibited its domestically produced SIGNA PET/MR equipment equipped with the "Spectral Diagnosis and Treatment System" for the first time this year. According to the company, the spectral diagnosis and treatment system combines the comprehensively improved MR hardware platform and TPU reconstruction system to achieve accurate quantification of whole nuclides and rapid imaging of the whole body sequence, providing disease state assessment and treatment guidance for a variety of diseases including neurodegenerative diseases, rectal cancer, breast cancer, and prostate tumors.
Chen Jinlei, Vice President and General Manager of GE Healthcare China's Medical Imaging Business, said that GE Healthcare's PET/MR imaging system platform has been iterated three times in the past decade, from the "TOF digital platform" and "zero-echo imaging platform" to the current "spectral diagnosis and treatment system", all of which help accurate diagnosis and early diagnosis with more accurate quantitative imaging information.
SIGNA PET/MR equipment at GE Healthcare's booth, courtesy of GE Healthcare
In addition, GE Healthcare also showcased the new generation of the Apex quantum platform, which is the first of its kind in China. Jointly developed by GE Healthcare's global and Chinese R&D capabilities, the next-generation Apex Quantum Platform integrates GE Healthcare's decades of CT technology to systematically architect from hardware platform to software system, from reconstruction engine to clinical workflow, bringing breakthroughs to CT clinical imaging.
Fosun Pharma, another six-year-old "full-time student", together with its partner Insightec, has brought a cutting-edge innovative product in the field of neurological disease treatment - "Magnetic Wave Knife", also known as "Magnetic Resonance Guided Focused Ultrasound Brain Therapy System".
The "magnetic wave knife" at Fosun Pharma's booth, Qu Yixian/photo
The treatment system has been approved by the European CE mark and the US FDA, and was approved by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) of China in 2021, and is currently a non-invasive surgical option for the clinical treatment of drug-refractory essential tremor and tremor-based Parkinson's disease. The treatment system combines focused ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to precisely locate the therapeutic target through MRI and use high-intensity focused ultrasound to ablate the lesion to achieve the treatment purpose.
In the device exhibition area, Abbott also brought a number of debuts this year, such as the Abbott AVEIR™ DR dual-chamber implantable leadless pacemaker system, which was the first show in Asia.
Abbott AVEIR™ DR dual-chamber implantable leadless pacemaker, courtesy of Abbott
According to Abbott, this is the world's first approved and currently the only approved dual-chamber leadless pacing system that truly implants devices in the right atrium and right ventricle for the treatment of arrhythmias or bradycardia. After the system is implanted into the heart through minimally invasive surgery, Abbott's unique I2i™ (implant-to-implant) communication technology realizes the interconnection communication between the two devices in the atrioventricular space, and truly realizes synchronous dual-chamber wireless pacing. It has a dedicated recovery catheter that can remove the device at any time if necessary, providing the flexibility to meet the needs of patients at different stages of implantation treatment.
In the Pharmaceutical Pavilion, several booths opened today, such as Gilead, which participated in the CIIE for the second time. In addition to showcasing its innovative drugs in the areas of HIV prevention, viral hepatitis, oncology and antifungals, Gilead also showcased its first-of-its-kind products, such as Sunlenca®, a new long-acting HIV drug that only needs to be administered twice a year. Sunlenca® is an HIV-1 capsid inhibitor that has been submitted for marketing in China in tablets and injections.
AbbVie, one of the world's top 5 biopharmaceutical companies in terms of revenue, joined hands with Allergan Aesthetics to enter the Expo this year. ABBVIE'S BLOCKBUSTER PRODUCTS IN THE FIELD OF IMMUNOLOGY AND EPKINLY IN THE FIELD OF HEMATOLOGICAL ONCOLOGY EXHIBITED THIS TIME ARE THE "FIRST SHOW IN CHINA". In addition, its ophthalmic drug Aodishi ® will also bring two major indications to CIIE. The innovative products in the field of immunology, the JAK inhibitor Ruifu, and the innovative drug for hematological tumors, Weikelai ®, ® are the beneficiaries of the spillover effect of the previous CIIE, and this time they show the exploration results in more disease fields.
Allergan Aesthetics, which is recognized as the most beautiful booth in the Pharmaceutical Pavilion every year, still showcased its core brands in China, including botulinum toxin product Botox ®, hyaluronic acid product Juvederm ® series, fat loss and body sculpting product Coolsculp ®, and functional skincare brand ® SKINMEDICA®. After the end of the 6th CIIE, Silke ® will be officially launched in China.
Allergan Aesthetics booth, photo by Qu Yixian
Medtronic, which has participated in the exhibition for the sixth consecutive year, also brought more than 60 exhibits this year, including one world premiere, one Asia-Pacific premiere and six China premieres.
Among them, the world's first exhibit is the PulseSelect pulsed field ablation system. As a new generation of atrial fibrillation ablation technology that expands the "ice and fire ablation" technique, this product is the first cardiac pulse field ablation product to enter the special approval channel of innovative medical devices of the National Medical Products Administration.
Medtronic's next-generation ClosureFast endovenous radiofrequency closure catheter was showcased for the first time in the Asia-Pacific region, while six China premieres included the Micra VR 2 and Micra AV 2, a new generation of upgraded transcatheter-implantable leadless pacemakers, and SimuForm semi-rigid molded rings for heart valve repair.