Zhenyi Medical Emerges as a Hidden Champion in Cardiovascular Intervention with Six Innovative Products

Starting with a single technology or disease field is the most prudent development path chosen by most medical device companies in their early stages due to financial or technical limitations. However, founded in 2019,Jiangsu Trulive Medtech Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Trulive")Yet, it has become an "outlier" among the majority. After years of strategic preparation, the team is now unsheathing its sword, making a bold entry into China’s billion-dollar cardiovascular intervention market.

Trulive is one of the few companies in China's interventional field.Bring Commercial Thinking into the R&D StageTrulive, unlike common engineer-skills-oriented product development enterprises, adheres to a clinical value-oriented approach and centers on the needs of doctors and patients. From the synergy planning of product lines, the progress梯队 of obtaining market approval, to the unique market positioning of each product and its required performance characteristics, every strategic layout is infused with meticulous thought and deliberation. "A company that can both produce high-quality products and make profits is a successful one."

Adhering to the principles of "expanding product indications and enhancing synergy across the product line" and "avoiding single products with limitations" is the bottom line observed by the Trulive team. Trulive focuses on disease areas with extremely high mortality and disability rates where the domestic market remains a blank slate. With a development mindset akin to creating a "one-stop toolbox," it has comprehensively laid out its strategy in the cardiovascular disease field. Although the company was not the earliest to be established, its robust innovation momentum has allowed it to catch up and surpass competitors, achieving ultimate product performance and the most optimized production costs within the industry, enabling it to better and more flexibly respond to commercial market risks.

Currently, the development of Trulive's medical toolbox has achieved initial success. Four star products are advancing rapidly in clinical enrollment, and another two products are also expected to enter clinical trials successively this year. The project research is proceeding smoothly, with clinical advancement efficiency and execution being unparalleled.

Recently, VCBeat contactedTrulive Chairman Wen Jing, and had an in-depth discussion with him regarding Trulive's innovative R&D, product clinical trials, and future plans.

The reason why Trulive has been able to make rapid progress and achieve comprehensive breakthroughs in four golden tracks of R&D and innovation in just a few years is inseparable from the company's helmsman, Wen Jing.

After graduating from the electronic engineering program at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Wen Jing joined a well-known domestic medical device company. Over the past decade, his work has been very focused: "I’ve only concentrated on two products—cardiac pacemakers and TAVI." He has experienced four complete life cycles: demand analysis, product development, clinical registration, and commercialization. From his youthful days to now approaching the age of 40, Wen Jing has grown alongside the medical device industry and has witnessed China’s high-end cardiovascular interventional medical devices evolve from non-existent to exceptional. "I have had the privilege of working with what could be called the first generation of innovative device engineers and entrepreneurs in China, and I have seen them gradually overcome coronary heart disease, turning what was once an 'incurable disease' into today's 'minor surgery,' and transforming what was once an astronomical cost into a treatment that ordinary people can afford. This contribution is monumental. My hope is to leverage the strength of our team to develop safer, more effective, and accessible domestically produced high-end medical interventional devices tailored for Chinese patients in areas where diseases remain unconquered."

In 2019, Trulive landed in Nantong City, Jiangsu Province. Thanks to the previous experience and training in the whole process and all aspects of R&D and company operation, Wen Jing not only has the "from 0 to 1 to 100" management operation commercialization experience, but also has a clear understanding of the talent profile of each functional module of company operation.

As of now, the Trulive team has over 200 members, including more than 100 R&D technical personnel. The core technical staff of the team all have more than ten years of industry experience and have received various research grants totaling over ten million."The most valuable asset of Trulive is its mid-level technical backbone."According to Wenjing, each technical leader in the company is highly skilled, and everyone has at least...Having gone through the development, design, and clinical application of multiple products.These mature engineers, who have undergone clinical validation, possess the ability to rapidly advance projects to implementation. This is also the reason why Trulive Medical can gain a solid foothold and make rapid progress in competition.

Trulive Medical Corporate Environment

All of Trulive's product designs are centered around real clinical usage scenarios and needs. The team places innovation at a strategic level and makes it the core focus, always staying ahead in competition. To expand the range of indications, enhance surgical safety, and ensure that product designs better align with the anatomical structures of Chinese patients as well as the surgical habits and needs of doctors in China, Trulive has joined forces with top clinical experts in the country to independently develop products. This ensures that the control systems of its products achieve maximum flexibility, precision, and controllability during clinical surgeries, safeguarding the safety and effectiveness of operations. Additionally, based on its existing technology platform, Trulive has developed multiple proprietary technologies, filling international gaps.

"Trulive is a results-oriented company. When it comes to medical products, especially life-saving ones, meeting the needs of doctors and patients and expanding the range of indications are the original intentions behind our product development. If there’s a conflict between speed and quality, we will unhesitatingly choose quality. Our engineers and product managers will go all out for this. For instance, with one of Trulive's valve products, in order to overcome limitations in indications, we spent an additional six months rigorously optimizing its performance. This led to the development of a smaller bending control system with more precise feedback, which expanded the range of indications several times over, making it particularly suitable for Chinese patients. Even complex 'difficult cases' are no longer a problem. I don’t think the extra six months was wasted effort. Now, during the clinical stage, our product has high enrollment efficiency, and the patient screening success rate is also very high. What others can't achieve, we can. This is what we stand by — avoiding single products with inherent limitations," said Wen Jing.

It is precisely the pursuit of product perfection that enables Trulive to create differentiated new products and technologies, continuously enhancing its core competitiveness. It has become one of the few innovative companies in China's high-end cardiovascular interventional medical device field capable of strongly competing with overseas products in terms of performance. According to reports, Trulive will soon bring its independently developed innovative products abroad to compete with international brands, showcasing "Chinese wisdom" on the global stage.

In addition to the highlights of the product itself, Trulive has achieved success through strategic planning."Large and Comprehensive" High Market Potential Valve Product Line, Point Layout "Small and Beautiful" Future Cash Flow Pipeline, establishing a dual-core driven development model, continuously strengthening core competitiveness, and promoting sustainable enterprise development. In Wen Jing's plan,Trulive is a company that can both produce high-quality products and achieve rapid commercialization.。Though capital assistance can provide a favorable boost, success ultimately depends on one's own strength.

"Large and Comprehensive" mainly refers to technically complex products in the billion-dollar market with high technical barriers, specialized education requirements, and steep learning curves, such as mitral and tricuspid valves. Expanding in these markets requires significant time and capital investment, making them slow-burn projects. On the other hand, "Small and Beautiful" niche markets have gained certain recognition and development after early pioneers' efforts. Although they start with a high entry point, they are easily replicable, characterized by low cost, quick learning, fast certification, and rapid profitability, suitable for targeted layouts and swift strategies. By pursuing both models simultaneously and complementing each other, Trulive can achieve "self-sustaining" growth more quickly. This also positions Trulive as one of the few companies in China capable of implementing multi-brand differentiation strategies. Compared to single-line enterprises, it has stronger market adaptability and risk resistance.

谈及公司未来发展，闻靖表示，心血管疾病中尚存在很多致死致残率极高的“疑难杂症”，让医护人员束手无策。以瓣膜类疾病为例，目前国内瓣膜疾病治疗主要依靠海外产品，但仅产品费用就需要自费30余万，整体的治疗费用就更加昂贵，许多中国家庭因无法承担而放弃治疗。臻亿取自臻于至善，亿万之重。臻于至善是臻亿的价值观，潜心笃行，不骄不躁；亿万之重是臻亿的使命，让更多医生和患者能在国产高端介入医疗器械中获益。臻亿医疗始终不忘初心，以肩负亿万患者的生命之重，希望能加速企业产品在中国上市的步伐，让更多的中国患者家庭都能使用到国际前沿技术，也希望臻亿医疗能加快走出国门在国际上提供“中国方案”，为更多患者带来获益。