Pulsating the Coronary Artery Disease Market: YUEWEI Medical Builds a Comprehensive Solution for Severe CAD Surgery

For patients with severe coronary heart disease,Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG)It is their preferred method of diagnosis and treatment.

In China, the potential patient population undergoing CABG therapy is not only large but also growing rapidly.Yu Wenyuan, CEO of Beijing Yuewei Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Yuewei Medical”)Inform Chengguo Bureau that the patient population has reached 4 million, with an annual increase of nearly 400,000. However, current clinical treatment resources remain insufficient to meet the substantial market demand.

Yu Wenyuan stated bluntly, “In the post-pandemic era, the number of hospitals in China capable of performing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) has increased significantly, nearly doubling over three years. Meanwhile, surgical volume has surged, more than doubling compared with 2019. During the special period at the end of 2022 when pandemic control policies were adjusted, major centers such as Beijing Anzhen Hospital and Fuwai Hospital saw a certain decline in surgical volume compared with 2021; however, the national surgical volume still achieved a year-on-year increase of over 50%. This indicates that cardiac surgery in China is now flourishing across the country, and there is substantial incremental growth potential awaiting exploration in the related medical device market.”

Market expansion presents both an opportunity and a challenge for Yuewei Medical.It is not enough to merely identify problems; the greater imperative is to solve them. Addressing the technical challenges in the diagnosis and treatment of coronary heart disease through original medical devices, while aligning with evolving policy trends such as those in health insurance reimbursement, constitutes the very rationale behind Yuewei Medical’s mission.

Cardiac surgery is almost the last specialty to be established in every tertiary hospital, regarded as the most challenging department. However, this department serves as an important “flagship” reflecting the level of medical technical expertise, playing a comprehensive driving role in the development of surrounding disciplines.

However, over the past many years, clinical resources in cardiac surgery, particularly in coronary artery disease surgery, have been concentrated in a few top-tier tertiary hospitals in China. In 2017, only 725 hospitals nationwide were capable of performing cardiac surgeries, and the overall quality of these procedures varied significantly.

High difficulty, not easy to enter clinical practice.This has largely resulted in a limited number of manufacturers engaged in the research, development, and production of related medical devices. Through extensive market research, the founding team of Yuewei Medical discovered that coronary heart disease has not been a focal point for medical device companies; both domestic and international firms have made only limited inroads in this field, leaving it largely an untapped blue ocean.

Seize the opportunity,Yuewei Medical has entered the blue-ocean market of surgical treatment for coronary heart disease with a range of innovative medical devices, including cardiac stabilizers for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), intraoperative ultrasonic flow meters, left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), and coronary anastomosis assistance systems.

On the one hand,High Clinical Recognition Instills Confidence in the Yuewei Medical Team. Yu Wenyuan told VCBeat that all of Yuewei Medical’s core projects are medical devices essential to the diagnosis and treatment process, with most being highly recommended and mandatory per clinical guidelines, representing rigid market demand; on the other hand,It is the originality of the technology that gives its innovation core competitiveness.. Yuewei Medical’s multiple core projects are global firsts, establishing competitive barriers in areas such as core technologies and manufacturing processes.

withNext-Generation Fixation DevicesAs an example, modular design can accommodate various surgical scenarios and effectively reduce surgical difficulty. In particular, in response to the trend toward minimally invasive coronary artery surgery, the new generation of stabilizers has overturned the traditional design concept of minimally invasive stabilizers, fundamentally assisting physicians in performing complete revascularization under direct vision via minimally invasive approaches. It is reported that the new generation of stabilizers has completed type testing and is expected to obtain medical device registration certification in 2023.

AndVascular Anastomosis Quality Control SystemWhile outperforming foreign competitors in key metrics, the product also significantly reduces end-user pricing, fills the domestic gap in the blood flow sensor market, and expands application scenarios across multiple fields, including animal experimentation. Upon its market launch, this product will effectively address the issue of insufficient quality control rates in coronary artery surgery in China.

In addition,Coronary Heart Disease Scoring SystemIt can significantly enhance the precision of disease assessment in patients with coronary heart disease, providing a powerful tool for preoperative risk assessment, intraoperative surgical planning, and postoperative prognosis estimation.

When it comes to entrepreneurship, Yu Wenyuan is most proud of his team. He introduced himself to VCBeat as follows, “We are a startup team integrating medicine and engineering.。”

Cardiac surgery experts with over 20 years of clinical experience at Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University (hereinafter referred to as “Anzhen Hospital”)Led by Yu Yang, together with Yu Wenyuan and Liu Hongli, two other attending physicians in the Department of Cardiac Surgery at Beijing Anzhen Hospital, forming the "Clinical Frontline Alliance." Together with a core R&D team comprising multiple key researchers who previously worked at renowned domestic and international medical device companies, Yuewei Medical’s team has gained strong confidence in its engineering and development capabilities.

To trace the origins of this integration of medicine and engineering, we must go back to 2014. “When I first joined Anzhen Hospital, Professor Yu emphasized the importance of scientific research, making us realize that research should not be confined to academic publications,” said Yu Wenyuan. From the outset, these three clinicians looked beyond their clinical duties alone.

It was also from that point on that they dedicated themselves to transforming their articles into patents. However, the deeper they delved into the process of commercializing scientific research outcomes, the more they realized that merely filing for patents fell far short of achieving true “medical-engineering interdisciplinary integration and technology transfer.” They gradually came to understand that only by developing products through a corporate entity and subjecting them to market validation could such efforts be considered genuine technology transfer.

However, for clinicians, the translation of scientific research achievements mostly remains at the conceptual stage, with considerable gaps in considerations for technical product implementation. If close collaboration and communication with universities and enterprises are not maintained from the outset of project design, it will be difficult to develop a proof-of-concept prototype. Yu Yang and his team are also well aware of this principle. According to Yu Wenyuan,The team jointly developed the prototype with top domestic research teams, including the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tsinghua University., hoping to leverage the strengths of universities to compensate for their own R&D deficiencies.

For technology transfer aimed at product commercialization, there is still a significant gap between laboratory prototypes and the standards of established medical enterprises. “But we did not immediately start a business. Because entrepreneurship is highly risky and also a lengthy process,” explained Yu Wenyuan.

The turning point came in 2020, when the outbreak of the pandemic changed the entire rhythm of clinical work. “After the pandemic, our overall clinical workload became somewhat lighter compared to before, and we felt it was time to advance the translation of our research achievements.” This period coincided with a surge in professor-led startups. This medical-engineering interdisciplinary team was alsoLotus Pond Venture CapitalThis VC firm, which focuses on early-stage investments, “seized” it.

In May 2023, Yuewei Medical announced the completion ofTens of millions in Pre-A round financing, investors in this round include IDG Capital and Yuanhui Chuangyi. The completion of the new financing round marks the company’s entry into a new phase of development.

Regarding fundraising, as Yu Wenyuan stated, the most critical priority for startups remains survival. While striving to sustain research and development efforts, they must also excel in marketing and sales.Investors will only commit when steady revenue growth is backed by robust projects.“Yu Wenyuan stated, ‘In the future, we will develop more and more competitive products, while leveraging our advantage of having clinicians on board to drive better revenue from our already launched products.’”

Therefore, for the company’s long-term development, what is more important isLong-Term Product StrategyYuewei Medical persists in continuous innovation in the cardiovascular field. Its products possess irreplaceable competitiveness in the cardiovascular consumables market, while its expanded portfolio of innovative cardiovascular devices taps into a potential market exceeding RMB 10 billion.

Over the past two years, Yuewei Medical has grown from a four-member medical-engineering team to a staff of more than twenty, navigating a relatively smooth journey. Looking ahead, the company aims to achieve full industry chain integration and unified application capabilities, while strengthening its sales prowess to emerge as a leader in a highly competitive market.

2023 was a pivotal year in the development of Yuewei Medical, as well as a year in which the company eagerly sought top talent. Currently, several of Yuewei Medical’s core products have reached critical stages of research and development, while simultaneously facing sales challenges associated with the initial market launch of its first batch of products. Therefore,Yuewei Medical is building a sales team to help its flagship products penetrate the market.