Wuhan Vico Medical Relocates to New Optics Valley Base Following Three Funding Rounds in Three Years

Recently, Wuhan Vickor Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Vickor"), which is about to celebrate its third anniversary, is busy relocating from its bonded zone plant near the Shanghai-Chongqing Expressway to the Wuhan China Merchants High-tech Network Valley in the heart of Optics Valley, where Vickor's new base, equipped with a modern GMP-compliant facility and a Class 10,000 laminar flow cleanroom, will also officially be completed and put into operation.

Founded on July 18, 2018, Vickor is an innovative medical device R&D enterprise dedicated to minimally invasive interventional therapies for structural heart diseases. Over the three years since its establishment, Vickor has completed three rounds of equity financing, raising a cumulative total of tens of millions of RMB. In April 2020, the company’s independently developed D-shant atrial shunt achieved China’s first human implantation, marking a historic zero-to-one breakthrough for the country in this field. The company has been honored as an Outstanding Enterprise of the Year at the 8th China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition (China Division) and recognized as the 2020 Most Investment-Worthy Healthcare Enterprise.

Capital from Jiangsu, management from Beijing, and technology from Wuhan—within three years, Vickor has crafted a remarkable Optics Valley story.

Dedicated to Therapeutic Devices for Heart Failure and Structural Heart Disease

Become the "Medtronic" of Central China

On July 9, Vickor’s core product, the D-shant atrial shunt, was unveiled at the 2021 China International Heart Failure Congress. It was disclosed at the conference that the D-shant atrial shunt has successfully completed its First-in-Man (FIM) study in China, demonstrating significant clinical efficacy. The multicenter registration clinical trial is set to commence fully and successfully completed the enrollment of the first patient on July 13.

Heart failure is a global challenge, known as the "stumbling block to life." According to epidemiological data, there are approximately 10 million heart failure patients in China. These patients suffer from poor exercise tolerance and low survival rates, require recurrent hospitalizations annually, and have a prognosis worse than that of cancer. Meanwhile, in the treatment of heart failure, conventional pharmacotherapy is limited by poor patient adherence and low target achievement rates, while conventional device-based therapies involve high technical barriers and prohibitive costs—often reaching hundreds of thousands of RMB—making them unaffordable for patients.

The D-Shant Atrial Shunt Device is a cutting-edge interventional device for heart failure treatment, pioneering in China and internationally leading. Jointly spearheaded in design, R&D, and production by Prof. Dong Nianguo’s team from the Department of Cardiac Surgery at Wuhan Union Hospital and the engineering team at Vickor, it possesses fully independent intellectual property rights. Implanted via a percutaneous minimally invasive approach, the device reduces left atrial pressure without significantly decreasing left cardiac output or markedly increasing right heart load, thereby alleviating pulmonary congestion and dyspnea to ultimately improve heart failure symptoms and prognosis.

As of now, the D-shant atrial shunt has been completed20At the 6-month postoperative follow-up of the FIM clinical trial, results demonstrated improved exercise tolerance and significant alleviation of discomfort symptoms in patients. Since its market launch, the product has been granted seven national invention patents for this single product.

“Heart failure is considered the only ‘final battlefield’ yet to be conquered in the field of cardiovascular diseases. The clinical approval of Vickor’s atrial shunt marks China’s first breakthrough in this field.”Shang Xiaoke, Founder and Chairman of Vickor, stated that compared with similar products that have already entered clinical trials internationally, the D-shant atrial shunt device is currently the only retrievable shunt system that allows for secondary intervention. "We are confident in maintaining rapid development in this field, accelerating the clinical research and regulatory registration process of the product, to benefit tens of millions of heart failure patients in China sooner."

In addition to the atrial shunt device, Vickor's core products also include a nanomembrane patent foramen ovale (PFO) occluder, an atrial septal interventional delivery system, an atrial septal puncture system, a pre-shaped extra-stiff guidewire, and transcatheter valve repair devices, among others. Most of these products are first-of-their-kind in China and independently developed, with several already entering clinical trials.

“What can truly drive technological advancement are the devices themselves; only the transformation of devices can bring about technological breakthroughs,” said Shang Xiaoke. Currently, in Wuhan and even the broader Central China region, there is not a single approved and registered manufacturer of Class III high-risk cardiac implantable devices. He dreams of establishing an R&D and manufacturing platform for structural heart disease medical devices, aiming to become the "Medtronic" (a globally renowned medical technology company) of Central China. “Our core philosophy is to develop China's first cardiovascular and cerebrovascular devices with independent intellectual property rights, thereby contributing to the cause of human heart health.”

"Golden Triangle" Teams Up to Launch a Startup

Building an Integrated Industry-University-Research Team

“In this surgical field, I have already won all the top awards, so I plan to pursue other ventures.” In December 2018, at the finals of the 2018 China Optics Valley 3551 International Entrepreneurship Competition, Shang Xiaoke, who competed with the startup project “Next-Generation Nano-Coated Rivet-Free Patent Foramen Ovale Occluder,” received the highest number of votes in the on-site judges’ popularity poll and secured second place in the competition with a high score.

Dr. Shang Xiaoke, aged 41, is a native of Shaanxi Province. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, followed by her master’s and doctoral degrees from Wuhan University, before joining the Department of Cardiac Surgery at Union Hospital. Since 2008, Dr. Shang has pioneered the large-scale performance of interventional procedures for congenital heart disease (CHD) in Hubei Province. To date, she has completed nearly 20,000 CHD interventional cases, ranking among the top in China for individual procedural volume. She has been honored as one of China's Top Ten Outstanding Young Cardiac Surgeons.

Shang Xiaoke, Founder and Chairman of Vickor.

In addition to Shang Xiaoke, the founding team of Vickor includes Chen Song, a metallic materials science expert from Jiangsu, and Wang Xueli, a cardiovascular regulatory affairs expert from Beijing.

Chen Song is among the earliest engineers in China engaged in the R&D of cardiovascular interventional medical devices. He has held director positions at multiple R&D companies, spearheaded the development of China’s first-generation congenital heart disease occlusion system, and is responsible for product R&D within the team; Wang Xueli, on the other hand, excels in corporate management and regulatory submission expertise, having founded multiple companies and accumulated successful experience in the clinical evaluation and regulatory registration of numerous medical device products, and is responsible for corporate management and product regulatory submissions within the team.

Both individuals have over a decade of professional experience and industry connections. Driven by the vision of "developing China's first atrial shunt device," they gave up stable careers and income to relocate to Wuhan.

Wang Xueli explained that, as Class III high-risk medical devices, atrial shunt devices and other products developed by Vickor are subject to stringent approval standards, requiring not only physicians but also professional R&D engineers and regulatory affairs experts. In her view, Vickor is an "industry-academia-research collaborative team directly integrating medical and technical expertise," "we are the golden triangle."

“Whether as a physician or an entrepreneur, my goal is to serve as a steadfast guardian of the heart,” said Shang Xiaoke. Performing surgery and running a business are by no means mutually exclusive; only clinicians truly understand medical devices. The expertise accumulated from over 20,000 past procedures has provided a wealth of clinical experience for his entrepreneurial venture. It is precisely thanks to Shang’s medical background that Vickor has successfully integrated industry, academia, and research, shortening the product commercialization cycle to less than six months and increasing production efficiency severalfold.

To date, the Vickor team has grown from an initial three members to 36. Among them, personnel in the core R&D and Medical Registration departments account for over two-thirds of the total workforce.

Last November, Vickor announced the completion of a Series A financing round worth tens of millions of RMB, led by Shanghai Shanlan Capital and followed by Shengyu Investment. Previously, in January 2019 and October 2019, Vickor had respectively secured angel-round funding from Proxima Capital and Pre-A round funding from the Optics Valley Talent Fund.

According to Wang Xueli, a new round of financing was launched last month and is expected to secure no less than 150 million RMB by October this year.

Proofreader: Zhang Yingying