Heart Support Innovator XinQing Medical Secures Tens of Millions in Series A Funding to Advance Extracorporeal Magnetically Levitated Artificial Heart

It is reported that Suzhou magAssist Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “magAssist”) has recently completed a Series A financing round worth tens of millions of yuan, which will be used forResearch and Development of Extracorporeal Magnetically Levitated Artificial Heart DevicesPipeline advancement, production line construction, and domestic and international regulatory filings. This investment round was led by Med-Fine Capital, with participation from Huatai Zijin Investment Co., Ltd., Xiamen Qianfan Yunfan Asset Management Co., Ltd., and Guoqian Venture Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd.

「magAssistFounded in 2017, the company is currently developing short-to-medium-term extracorporeal ventricular assist devices (also known as “short-to-medium-term extracorporeal artificial hearts”). The company previously secured tens of millions of RMB in angel-round financing from Guoqian Venture Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. in January 2018, and obtained tens of millions of RMB in Pre-A round financing from Taiyu Investment in June 2018.

In terms of the team, Xu Boling, founder of magAssist, hasUniversity of Cambridge, Department of Electrical Engineering andHe holds a dual Ph.D. in Medical Engineering from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, and was awarded the ASAIO Young Investigator Award by the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs (ASAIO) in 2014, becoming the only Chinese recipient of this honor in the past decade.

Heart failure is referred to as the "cancer of heart diseases." Public data shows that there are currently 26 million people with heart failure worldwide, and approximately 50% of patients in the late stages (NYHA Class III and IV) will die within two years. Heart transplantation is currently recognized as the only effective treatment for end-stage heart failure patients. However, due to a shortage of donors, China can only perform about 300 heart transplantations annually. Against this backdrop,Artificial HeartBrings new possibilities for patients.

For critically ill patients with fulminant myocarditis or cardiac arrest caused by acute conditions such as H1N1, severe car accidents, or drowning, as well as for patients who cannot be weaned from cardiopulmonary bypass after open-heart surgery, the extracorporeal artificial heart is a life-saving emergency and therapeutic intervention that can increase patient survival rates by 50%.

Currently, other active companies in the field of artificial hearts include “Tongxin Medical], Abbott, Medtronic, Kalmar, Syncardia, and Eternal Heart, among others. However, to date, only Thoratec (a subsidiary of Abbott) and Tongxin Medical have developed technologies in the field of ultra-compact fully magnetically levitated artificial hearts that have reached a level of maturity suitable for clinical application. Meanwhile, on June 18 this year, Tongxin Medical received a strategic investment of RMB 100 million from Blue Sail Medical, which will be used for the clinical trials, registration, and market development of its fully magnetically levitated artificial heart, “CH-VAD,” in the global market.