GE Healthcare and Sinopharm Renew 30-Year Strategic Partnership and Launch Ultra-High-End Revolution CT Production Line in Beijing

Source: Economic Daily - China Economic Net

Economic Daily - China Economic Net, Beijing, November 16 (Reporter Sun Changyue): On November 15, the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area awarded HangweiGeneral Electric（GE(Aviation Health) The ceremony for awarding the title of “Beijing Demonstration Base for the Localization of Medical Equipment” was held in Beijing. On the same day, GE Healthcare’s new ultra-high-end 256-slice Revolution CT production line officially commenced operations at the GE Aviation Health factory located in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area. GE Healthcare and China National Pharmaceutical Group Corporation renewed their strategic cooperation, aiming to jointly build a more robust, comprehensive, and targeted advanced medical device intelligent manufacturing industrial base.

GE Hangwei Medical Systems Co., Ltd. (GE Hangwei) is GE Healthcare’s first joint venture in China, with strategic planning initiated in 1990 and establishment completed in 1991. Over the past three decades, the GE Healthcare Beijing Imaging Equipment Manufacturing Base, where GE Hangwei is located, has evolved into GE’s largest manufacturing facility globally. Comprising two major plants—GE Hangwei and Hualun—the base produces dozens of products, including CT scanners, X-ray machines, surgical systems, and mammography units, supplying more than 100 countries and regions worldwide. Currently, 70% of the CT equipment shipped by GE globally is manufactured at the GE Hangwei plant in Beijing. Its annual exports account for approximately 20% of Beijing’s total medical device export value, serving as a prime example of how “Intelligent Manufacturing in China” benefits the world.

“Looking back on more than 40 years of reform and opening-up, a large number of medical device enterprises have made significant contributions to introducing, digesting, and absorbing advanced international technologies, thereby promoting innovative development in the industry,” stated Xu Jinghe, Deputy Director of the National Medical Products Administration. As a globally renowned medical device company, GE Healthcare has partnered with China National Pharmaceutical Group Corporation (Sinopharm), which, as a national team and key player, shoulders the important responsibility for the development of China’s medical device industry. By fully leveraging the advantages of China’s vast healthcare market and collaborating with peers in the domestic and international medical device sectors, GE Hangwei has adhered to the philosophy of lean management and mutual benefit over the past 30 years. It has made significant contributions to promoting the local research and development, manufacturing, sales, and import-export trade of large-scale medical devices in China, as well as advancing high-end intelligent manufacturing, thereby laying a solid foundation for further deepened cooperation between both parties in the future.

“The recent epidemic has made us realize that life is fragile, and science and technology are the most powerful weapons for humanity to overcome epidemics,” said Zhang Yihao, President and CEO of GE Healthcare China. By renewing its 30-year partnership with China National Pharmaceutical Group Corporation (Sinopharm), GE Healthcare China will continue to fully implement its strategies of comprehensive localization, digital empowerment, and win-win cooperation. Leveraging the synergistic advantages of global resources and locally manufactured smart production, GE Healthcare China will play a pioneering and demonstrative role, boldly exploring and innovating, to contribute to significantly enhancing the research and development as well as advanced manufacturing capabilities of domestically produced medical equipment.

It is reported that the ultra-high-end CT production line now operational in Beijing will increasingly demonstrate its driving and upgrading effect on the upstream and downstream industrial and supply chains. In the coming years, GE Healthcare’s Beijing factory will gradually increase the domestic procurement of key components for high-end CT scanners, leading local manufacturers in the comprehensive innovation capabilities of lean management, quality management, and high-complexity technologies. Furthermore, leveraging the radiation and demonstration effects of this production line, it will strongly propel the domestic supply chain to accelerate its advancement toward world-class standards in quality and management for high-precision special metal processing, thereby promoting the transformation and upgrading of China’s high-precision equipment manufacturing industry.