Anheng Medical Secures $100 Million Investment to Advance High-Tech Robotic Capsule Endoscopy

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) learned at the earliest opportunity that Chinese high-tech medical device company Anhan Medical on August 15, 2017Announced strategic partnerships with Dazhong Investment, SoftBank China Capital, Advantage Capital, Qiansheng Investment, Houxin Health Investment, and Tongsheng Capital; the six investment firms will jointly invest $100 million to expand Anhan Medical’s market presence and support the development of new product lines.

Anhan Medical, founded in 2009, is the world’s first company to successfully independently develop and commercialize a magnetically controlled capsule gastroscopy system, and it has remained highly favored by the capital market in recent years.

In February 2017, Anhan Medical selected SoftBank China Capital for a strategic partnership from among numerous investment offers, securing tens of millions of dollars in funding to expand its presence in the medical market. Within just a few months, six capital institutions jointly made substantial investments and entered into strategic collaborations with Anhan Medical.

Anhan Medical’s fully independent innovation, the Anhan Magnetically Controlled Capsule Gastroscopy Robot, is the world’s only capsule endoscope capable of precise gastric examination, holding nearly 100 domestic and international technical patents. Currently, the Anhan Capsule Gastroscopy Robot has been adopted by nearly 1,000 medical institutions across 30 provinces and municipalities in China, providing comfortable capsule gastroscopy services to the Chinese population. Anhan Medical operates two million-unit production lines and leverages “Internet Plus” technology to deliver cloud-based medical services. With a market potential valued in the hundreds of billions, its expansive footprint is radiating globally, offering promising market prospects.

“No intubation required—simply swallow a tiny capsule robot with water, and a painless, non-invasive, anesthesia-free gastric examination can be easily completed in just 15 minutes, with diagnostic accuracy highly consistent with that of conventional electronic gastroscopy.” Four years ago, Anhan Medical turned this science-fiction scenario into reality. This achievement was hailed as a “groundbreaking innovation in endoscopic examination” and received the “2016 Top Ten Medical Advances in China” award. The Anhan Capsule Gastroscopy Robot holds the only Class III medical device registration certificate for capsule gastroscopy issued by the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) nationwide (Registration Certificate No.: Guo Xie Zhu Zhun 20173223192), establishing its unparalleled leadership in the field of capsule endoscopy.

China is a country with a high incidence of cancer, with the highest rate of gastric cancer in the world. Each year, there are 680,000 new cases of gastric cancer and 500,000 deaths from it, resulting in a mortality rate as high as 80%. Every minute, someone dies from gastric cancer. Gastroscopy is considered the "gold standard" for gastric cancer screening. Conservative estimates suggest that 120 million people at high risk need to undergo gastroscopy annually in China. However, due to the discomfort associated with traditional intubation gastroscopy and the significant shortage of medical professionals in China, hundreds of millions of patients who urgently require gastric cancer screening have no choice but to forgo the examination.

Gastric cancer screening is imperative, and the Anhan Magnet-controlled Capsule Gastroscopy perfectly addresses this challenge. As a non-invasive, painless, and trauma-free procedure, this novel examination format not only offers comfort to the general public but also provides a safe and risk-free option for elderly individuals, children, and patients with cardiovascular or cerebrovascular diseases who have poor tolerance for conventional electronic gastroscopy. It has disruptively overcome both the technical and psychological barriers associated with gastric cancer screening, emerging as a powerful tool for early detection. The Anhan Capsule Gastroscopy Robot features user-friendly operation that does not rely on specialized endoscopists. With its simplicity, it holds vast market potential across various primary healthcare institutions and physical examination centers in China.

The diagnostic accuracy of the Anhan Capsule Gastroscopy has gained high recognition from the international medical community. In September 2016, a research article on the accuracy of the Anhan Magnetically Controlled Capsule Gastroscopy was published as the cover story in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology (CGH), a prestigious academic journal in the United States. The study results demonstrated that the diagnostic accuracy of the Anhan Capsule Gastroscopy is highly consistent with that of conventional electronic gastroscopy. Japan, a global leader in digestive endoscopy, also prominently featured this highly influential academic paper in its authoritative industry journal, The Journal of Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society, in January 2017. The publication of the science news book China’s Stomach Protection War, co-authored by ten academicians, and the release of the Chinese Expert Consensus on the Clinical Application of Magnetically Controlled Capsule Gastroscopy, led by the Endoscopist Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, mark a new phase in Anhan Medical’s market promotion and academic science communication.

The China Health Foundation, in collaboration with Anhan’s capsule gastroscopy, launched the “National Gastric Cancer Screening Study for High-Risk Populations.” The interdisciplinary research project “Gastric Health Monitoring in Patients on Dual Antiplatelet Therapy Following Cardiac Stent Implantation” was also included in the National 13th Five-Year Plan Major Special Projects.

Mr. Zhang Dazhong, founder of Dazhong Electrical Appliances, stated that high-tech medical enterprises will become the mainstay of the future healthcare market. He believes that Anhan will foster a substantial sub-sector within the healthcare industry, driven by the synergistic convergence of optoelectronic high technology, intelligent recognition, smart healthcare, and big data on gastrointestinal health.

Dr. Hua Ping, Managing Partner at SoftBank China Capital, stated: “SoftBank China holds high regard for outstanding enterprises like Anhan Medical, which possess world-leading technologies, sustain innovation capabilities, and operate online cloud healthcare platforms. SoftBank China is confident in Anhan’s future development.”

Mr. Ji Pengsong, Chairman of Anhan Corporation, stated, “The finest physicians prevent disease before it arises.” The use of Anhan’s magnetically controlled capsule gastroscope can significantly increase the early screening rate for gastric cancer in China, alter the current reality where gastric cancer is often diagnosed only at advanced stages, conserve societal medical resources, thereby optimize the allocation of healthcare resources, address the shortage of specialized endoscopists in China, and establish a new paradigm in gastrointestinal health care.

According to VCBeat, Anhan Medical currently has dozens of capsule robot products under development, with new therapeutic products such as vibrating capsule robots already entering clinical trials. In addition, Anhan has built a big data cloud platform for gastrointestinal medical care by leveraging the “Internet Plus” model, promoting the application of artificial intelligence in medical imaging. This enables patients undergoing capsule gastroscopy at various medical institutions across China to access remote services, effectively enhancing the medical capabilities of primary-care hospitals and advancing tiered diagnosis and treatment, in close alignment with the Outline of the Healthy China 2030 Plan.