Yangqi MedChip Secures Tens of Millions in Strategic Investment from Meihong Investment to Accelerate the 'Chip' Era of Precision Radiotherapy

Radiotherapy has become a common method for treating cancer. The "Outline of the 'Healthy China 2030' Plan" points out that by 2030, the overall five-year survival rate for cancer in China will be no less than 46.6%, providing direction for cancer prevention and control efforts.

With technological advancements and the growing demand for greater safety and comfort during radiotherapy, China’s radiotherapy sector is embarking on a path toward precision, intelligence, and personalization. Recently, the domestic radiotherapy community has once again announced positive developments.

VCBeat has learned that Shenzhen Yangqi Yixin Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Yangqi Medical”) secured tens of millions of yuan in strategic investment from Meihong Investment in October 2023, following its Angel+ round financing of tens of millions of yuan in May 2023. The two parties have also established a strategic partnership. The funds raised will be used to accelerate product iteration, deepen technological innovation, and strengthen the talent team.

Yangqi Medical was established in September 2021, with its headquarters located in the Shenzhen Nanshan Medical Device Industrial Park, and has set up R&D centers in Shanghai and Hangzhou. The company is committed to becoming a pioneer in precision nuclear medicine. Its core founding team consists of experts in nuclear medicine, nuclear physics, and artificial intelligence from prestigious institutions such as Stanford University and Alibaba Group. Dr. Zhou Guanqun, the CTO, has previously engaged in accelerator design and R&D at the University of Science and Technology of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Stanford University, and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in the United States.

For a long time, radiotherapy devices widely used in medicine could only roughly outline the tumor location before surgery, making it easy to inadvertently damage other tissues and organs during radiation treatment, thus falling far short of meeting patients’ therapeutic needs. Moreover, in actual clinical practice, it is difficult to precisely reproduce the patient’s position from the initial CT simulation; even with immobilization using corresponding molds, certain deviations inevitably occur.

Moreover, internal organs are in motion, and their positions can change daily, which affects both the tumor targeted for irradiation and adjacent organs. Additionally, the irradiated tumor and surrounding organs may undergo changes during the course of treatment, rendering the initial treatment plan potentially unsuitable for the altered anatomical conditions.

To address the aforementioned challenges, Yangqi Medical empowers precision radiotherapy through its independently developed optical navigation technology, known as Surface-Guided Radiation Therapy (SGRT). By acquiring patient imaging data using various imaging devices before, during, or after treatment, this system localizes tumors, normal tissues and organs, or patient body surface contours. It enables high-frame-rate, high-precision real-time monitoring of changes in tumor position and shape, ensuring that physicians can promptly adjust radiotherapy plans during treatment. This approach minimizes positional errors caused by factors such as respiratory motion or weight loss, thereby truly achieving personalized precision radiotherapy.

Since its inception, Yangqi Intelligent has been committed to becoming a pioneer in autonomous driving within the medical device sector. Its “autonomous driving” capability is manifested in the product system’s ability to automatically adjust radiotherapy plans based on tumor changes occurring during treatment for different patients, akin to “respiratory gating,” thereby achieving precise monitoring throughout the therapeutic process.

Leveraging the technical principles of optical surface imaging, this approach eliminates the need for additional radiation exposure or the placement of external modules on the patient to monitor respiratory motion. Instead, it operates by acquiring real-time surface data of patient movement during treatment, significantly reducing manufacturing and treatment costs while simplifying operational procedures.

Leveraging optical navigation technology, Yangqi Medical is advancing multiple product pipelines in parallel. Its surface monitoring product, “Qi Shi,” has achieved a precision of up to 0.2 mm and has entered the registration testing phase; meanwhile, the company’s low-dose CT enhancement product, “Qing Ying,” has already obtained its registration certificate.

Public data indicate that approximately 70% of cancer patients require radiotherapy. However, China’s per capita availability of radiotherapy equipment is less than one-fifth of that in the United States, particularly in third-tier cities and below, where insufficient equipment per capita has resulted in a low radiotherapy penetration rate. Consequently, only 23% of cancer patients in China receive radiotherapy, compared with 60% in the United States, indicating nearly threefold room for future growth in penetration.

According to statistical data from Frost & Sullivan and China Business Industry Research Institute, the size of China’s radiotherapy market grew from RMB 27.2 billion in 2016 to RMB 51.7 billion in 2021, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.7%. With the increasing adoption of radiotherapy in China and advancements in radiotherapy technologies, the radiotherapy services market is expected to maintain robust high-speed growth.

With the national promotion of radiotherapy equipment普及 and support for primary healthcare institutions, coupled with the upgrading of existing radiotherapy devices, the radiotherapy equipment market is poised for a new round of growth. Yangqi Medical will also enter a fast track of development, safeguarding the high-quality advancement of precise tumor radiotherapy in China.

Meihong Investment is a private equity investment firm established by several former shareholders and executives of Meinian Onehealth Healthcare (SZ: 002044) in collaboration with industry experts, while also attracting a cohort of outstanding investment professionals from the sector. Meihong Investment focuses on equity investments in growth-stage non-listed companies across the upstream, midstream, and downstream segments closely related to the healthcare and wellness industry. It leverages its extensive investment experience and industrial resources in the medical services field to empower its portfolio companies. Adhering to the philosophy of “Health for a Future: Capturing Deterministic Value in China’s Health Investment Trends,” Meihong Investment is committed to investing in innovative healthcare solutions and strategically laying out an innovative ecosystem for medical services, aiming to become an incubation platform that helps Chinese healthcare startups set sail and thrive.