Newways Medical Secures RMB 6 Million Funding to Expand Sleep Health Solutions and Market Reach

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) learned today that Zhejiang Newrus Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Newrus”) has secured RMB 6 million in investment from Zhejiang Zike Asset Management Co., Ltd. The funds have been received and will be primarily used for market promotion.

NeuroRise was established in April 2016, dedicated to the research, development, and production of medical devices for neuroelectrophysiology. The company entered the market through the sleep medicine sector, providing hospitals with sleep monitoring data and establishing a comprehensive closed-loop system spanning from diagnosis to treatment.

Before securing financing, the predecessor of Neurith was a medical device trading company.During its early startup phase, the company self-raised RMB 9 million as initial capital and received a non-repayable grant of RMB 6 million from Hangzhou Future Sci-Tech City.The company has attracted and assembled a team of high-caliber professionals across various fields, including electrophysiology, bioengineering, software engineering, marketing, and clinical medicine.The Chief Scientist is Wang Ze, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, specializing in EEG detection algorithms.. Other executives come from Hikvision and Dahua; Hu Chenhan was formerly the COO of Shendeng Technology, which also specializes in EEG technology.

According to the 2015 China Sleep Quality Report, nearly 38% of Chinese people are troubled by sleep problems. Among them, the prevalence of insomnia among the elderly is as high as 60%. China has the largest number of insomnia sufferers in the world. In March 2017, the Chinese Sleep Research Society released the 2017 Report on the Current Status of Sleep Among Chinese Youth. A survey of nearly 60,000 people showed that only 11% could “sleep through the night,” while 76% reported difficulty falling asleep.

Chronic sleep disturbances not only diminish quality of life and impair personal and occupational functioning, but also precipitate a range of physical and mental disorders, such as cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, cancer, and depression.

How severe are sleep disorders, and what is the current state of treatment? Hu Chenhan revealed that hospitals’ capacity for sleep monitoring is far insufficient, leading to significant patient attrition. At a typical Grade A tertiary hospital, 100 patients seek consultation daily for sleep-related issues. Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, affiliated with Zhejiang University School of Medicine, sees over 20,000 such patients annually. However, the hospital can only monitor five patients per day. Among those unable to receive monitoring, half may have underlying pathological conditions. Due to limited diagnostic capabilities and capacity, physicians can only provide diagnosis and treatment to the most severely affected patients.

Newroth acquired a company specializing in psychological stress assessment scales for initial sleep disorder screening. The system utilizes questionnaires to determine whether patients require further diagnosis and treatment. It has met the national industry standards in China and has been included in the national medical insurance reimbursement catalog.

In addition to scale analysis, Neuracle offers a polysomnography device—the “NEU-01”—which features 32 channels and monitors nine parameters. The NEU-01’s improvements include the use of a headband to monitor electroencephalogram (EEG), electrooculogram (EOG), electromyogram (EMG), and blood oxygen saturation, with data transmitted via Bluetooth to a data processing unit. Body movement, body position, thoracic and abdominal movements, and respiration are measured using piezoelectric sensors embedded in the bed, while heart rate is derived through algorithmic analysis.

NeuroRx also employs machine learning techniques to analyze the sampled waveforms,and already possesses 300 cases of medical-grade EEG pathological data, while MIT had only 412 cases. The analysis of EEG waveforms was entirely conducted by attending physicians in the EEG departments of Grade IIIA hospitals, ensuring accurate feature localization. This analysis system possesses independent intellectual property rights; Neurithm currently holds three invention patents, eleven utility model patents, and three software copyrights.

Both the data acquisition device and the analysis system have applied for CFDA medical certification, passed quality audits, and are currently undergoing clinical trials, with full approval expected by October this year.

In addition to detection devices and systems, Newros is providing medical services to patients and is currently establishing a 1,400-square-meter sleep center., operations will commence upon certification of the testing equipment, with commercial deployment expected by October this year. By partnering with hospitals, the sleep center will function as a third-party testing institution, addressing shortages of medical equipment and limited facility space in hospitals.

The utilization and mining of medical big data will be Newruosi Medical's future entry point., leverage medical-grade EEG data to build big data resources, develop data analysis models, and create diagnostic support systems that provide pathological data for clinical diagnosis, while establishing disease early-warning systems for patients.

In terms of the market, NeuronX has received orders worth RMB 9 million., with clients from hospitals in Zhejiang, Sichuan, Guangdong, Beijing, Shanghai, and other regions.

According to data from Zhejiang Zike, “The most promising growth prospect in the EEG industry lies in the field of sleep. Neuracle has a clear business model, establishing an end-to-end closed loop for sleep monitoring and treatment. Investing in them aligns with our healthcare portfolio strategy, which is what attracted us to this investment. This also marks our first investment in an early-stage project.”

Source: Xtecher and other internet platforms