Recently,Aerospace New Long March Medical Instrument (Beijing) Co., Ltd. Completes First Round of Financing, Raising a Total of 188.88 Million YuanAgainst the backdrop of a harsh winter in the medical device industry, where financing windows have narrowed and capital investment has become increasingly cautious, this large early-stage financing deal stands out as particularly impressive.

Long March MedicalAffiliated to the First Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, and also the first batch of "Qihang Enterprises" by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, under its umbrellaHuiSheng-I ECMO is the second domestically produced ECMO product approved in China, following the approval of Hannover Medical Lifemotion® ECMO System.

This round of financing is highly valuable, gathering core forces from multiple parties such as government industrial funds, aerospace industry capital, and state-owned financial capital, forming a strong capital synergy. Among them, the Beijing Municipal Medicine and Health Industry Investment Fund acts as the lead investor; the Beijing Fengze Zhiyuan Industrial Cultivation Equity Investment Fund, as the first systematic and market-oriented government industrial investment fund managed by state-owned enterprises in the Fengtai District, will provide strong support for the company’s local扎根 and industrial implementation. Aerospace Investment Holdings Co., Ltd., as the professional investment platform of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, will further strengthen the company's aerospace resource coordination and industrial linkage advantages. The ICBC Financial Investment No. 2 New Industry Equity Investment Fund, relying on the comprehensive financial system and substantial capital strength of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, will provide diversified financial support for the company’s subsequent industrial layout and long-term development.

Notably, this round of financing simultaneously implemented an employee stock ownership plan approved by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and filed with the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. Meanwhile, the original shareholder, Beijing Research Institute of Precision Mechanical and Electrical Controls (referred to as "the 18th Institute"), maintained its controlling position, reinforcing its unique aerospace foundation.

Aerospace New Long March Medical Instrument (Beijing) Co., Ltd. was established in December 2021 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the 18th Institute, under the First Academy of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. It is also one of the first "Qihang Enterprises" designated by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), focusing on the transformation and application of aerospace technology in the field of high-end medical equipment, and is regarded as the national team in the high-end medical device sector.

Behind it, the No. 18 Institute, as a specialized research and development unit for precision electromechanical control equipment and the professional technology center for China Aerospace servo systems, has over 50 years of development history. It has participated in more than 100 launch missions of the Long March series carrier rockets, including the "Shenzhou" spacecraft and the "Chang'e" satellite. It has accumulated profound technical expertise in areas such as servo control, flow field simulation, and system integration.

The core R&D team of Aerospace New Long March Medical Instrument (Beijing) Co., Ltd. comes from top universities such as Peking University and Tsinghua University. The company also has an expert advisory team led by two academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, ensuring the smooth progress of technological research and development. According to reports, since its establishment, the company has never incurred losses. It has completed the core product R&D and mass production with significantly less investment than the market average, demonstrating strong self-sustaining capabilities.

Source: Official WeChat Account of the Company

Leveraging the advantages of aerospace technology conversion, Aerospace New Long March Medical Instrument (Beijing) Co., Ltd. focuses on fluid control medical devices, with a key emphasis on life-support equipment and high-value consumables, as well as new sensing and detection devices and consumables. It has achieved critical breakthroughs in the field of ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation), known as the "life-saving device," launching core products such as the HuiSheng-I ECMO device, Chishui series warming units, and Julan series extracorporeal flow monitors, establishing a complete product ecosystem.

As the company's core product, the HuiSheng-I ECMO is a model of the civil application of aerospace technology — its servo mechanism technology originates from the rocket flight control actuation system and represents a significant achievement in applying China’s aerospace technology to the high-end medical field. It has full independent intellectual property rights, with controllable technology, and its performance and specifications have reached international standards of similar products, with some indicators offering additional advantages.Compared with other ECMO devices produced in China, the HuiSheng-I ECMO's most prominent feature is its aerospace-grade stability, weighing only 7.5kg. It adopts the world’s second integrated design, offering extremely high portability. It is not only suitable for routine critical care but can also operate stably in complex scenarios such as inter-provincial and international air transport. It successfully assisted in completing Tianjin's first pediatric heart transplant surgery, setting a new record for the youngest patient in this field locally.

In terms of product composition, the HuiSheng-I ECMO system includes a main unit, flow/bubble sensors, a manual emergency drive device, and other complete components. It provides power and safety monitoring during extracorporeal circulation and is used in conjunction with compatible single-use consumables to achieve pulmonary function support. It is suitable for adult patients with acute respiratory failure, whose conditions are difficult to control with other treatments and have foreseeable risks of continued deterioration or death. To date, the product has been implemented in 105 terminal hospitals across 22 provincial-level regions in China, completing over 1,000 clinical applications, fully verifying its stability and reliability.

In addition, the company's independently developed Chishui series warming devices achieve 100% localization at the chip level, and the Julan series flow monitor is the first clamp-on ultrasonic sensor in China, successfully overcoming the technical pain points of international brands, further enhancing the product portfolio of life support equipment. In 2024, the company completed the renewal of its medical device registration certificate, changing the one-year Extracorporeal Lung Support (WV) product registration to a five-year Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Support (WV+VA) registration, laying a solid foundation for large-scale product promotion.

Since its establishment in 2021, Aerospace New Long March Medical Instrument (Beijing) Co., Ltd. has achieved rapid development: At the end of 2021, it collaborated with several top hospitals in China to advance multi-phase large animal experiments for the HuiSheng-I ECMO; In October 2022, it obtained the test report from the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC), and in December, it successfully passed the ethical review of Beijing Union Medical College Hospital and the clinical trial registration with the municipal drug regulatory authority in one go; In January 2023, the HuiSheng-I ECMO was approved for marketing, becoming the second domestically produced ECMO product approved in China.Long March MedicalThe test data shows that by 2025, the company's ECMO device sales volume market share will rise to the top three in China, becoming a core force in the field of domestically produced ECMO.

The rapid rise of Aerospace New Long March Medical Instrument (Beijing) Co., Ltd. is a microcosm of the accelerating breakthroughs in China's domestically produced ECMO industry. For a long time, core ECMO technologies have been monopolized by Europe and the United States, with the power pump, oxygenator, and heparin surface coating technology all controlled by international giants. China’s ECMO devices and accompanying high-value consumables were 100% reliant on imports, keeping procurement costs for medical institutions excessively high. The price of single units of foreign equipment generally ranged from 1.5 to 3 million yuan, with some high-end models costing as much as 5 to 8 million yuan, leaving very little room for negotiation.

As national policies continue to gain momentum, ECMO has been listed as a key development technology in the "Healthy China 2030" Planning Outline. The revision of the Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of Medical Devices has simplified the approval process for domestically produced equipment. Local governments support local enterprises' R&D through special funds, tax incentives, and other measures, accelerating the rise of China-produced ECMO companies. Currently, seven companies in China, including Aerospace New Long March Medical Instrument (Beijing) Co., Ltd., Hanno Medical, Saton Medical, and Hengrui Medical, have successfully brought ECMO-related products to market. Additionally, approximately 22 research institutions and companies are advancing related studies, covering multiple fields such as device control systems, blood pump systems, and membrane lung systems.

The market landscape is also quietly reshaping: China's ECMO market size reached 960 million yuan in 2024, and it is expected to increase to 3.71 billion yuan by 2030 and reach 10.73 billion yuan by 2035, with a significant compound annual growth rate (Data source: Frost & Sullivan report); the winning bid price of domestically produced ECMO concentrates between 1.035 million and 1.5 million yuan, which is about 30% lower than imported equipment, showing an obvious cost-performance advantage; by the first half of 2025, the market share of domestic equipment has broken through 30%, increasing by 15 percentage points compared with the whole year of 2024, and it is expected to reach 35% by the end of 2025, among which Aerospace New Long March Medical Instrument (Beijing) Co., Ltd., Hanno Medical, and Seton Medical have formed a leading pattern.

Despite significant breakthroughs in ECMO systems produced in China, the industry still faces multiple challenges: reliance on imported core consumables, with key components such as ECMO arteriovenous long-term catheters still monopolized by international giants like Maquet and Medtronic; high treatment costs, with single-use ECMO treatment expenses reaching 100,000–200,000 yuan, of which consumable costs account for over 60%, and in most regions, ECMO is not fully covered by medical insurance, leading to a high out-of-pocket burden for patients.

However, the positive signals of industry development are also evident. Medical insurance policies continue to be optimized, with many regions gradually including ECMO treatment in the scope of medical insurance payments. Some areas are exploring payment mechanisms based on treatment outcomes through DRG/DIP payment reforms, reducing the burden on patients. Industry standards are being rapidly improved, with the National Health Commission issuing the "Clinical Application Management Standards for Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Technology," promoting standardized industry development. Clinical application scenarios are continuously expanding; as equipment portability and technology become more widespread, ECMO is moving from tertiary hospitals to municipal and county-level hospitals, leading to a continuous expansion of market demand.

For the future, publications from Aerospace New Long March Medical Instrument (Beijing) Co., Ltd. indicate that the funds raised in this round will mainly be used for core product research and iteration, clinical certification of key consumables, production capacity construction, and market expansion. In the near term, efforts will focus on achieving full-chain independent control of ECMO, developing a truly China-produced ECMO system, and fundamentally solving the "bottleneck" problem.

Instrument之家 believes that the reshuffle in the ECMO industry is an inevitable process of market maturation, and the next few years will be a critical period for China-produced substitution and industry upgrading. China-based enterprises, represented by Aerospace New Long March Medical Instrument (Beijing) Co., Ltd., are leveraging aerospace technology, policy support, and talent advantages to promote the "life-saving神器" towards inclusive healthcare. In the future, they are expected to achieve a leap from "catching up" to "leading," making a significant contribution to the domestic development of China's high-end medical equipment.