Weekly Medical Device News Roundup [Apr 28 – May 4, 2026]: Funding, Approvals, and Strategic Expansions

Recently, the Antu Biochannel Partner Conference themed "Gathering Momentum for Win-Win Cooperation · Embarking on a New Journey" was grandly held in Zhengzhou. Partners from all over China gathered to discuss cutting-edge technologies and cooperation opportunities in the field of infectious disease testing. Antu Biotech launched an automated microbial sample pre-processing system that efficiently handles 70%-80% of routine specimen inoculations, covering various types such as sputum, swabs, and urine. The system ensures biosafety through standardized operation processes and significantly improves laboratory efficiency while reducing labor costs. The intelligent microbial blood culture solution achieves critical value alerts through smart monitoring, reducing average machine delay time by 10 hours and greatly improving pathogen detection rates in blood samples. It solves the issue of delayed submission during non-working hours without requiring night shifts in microbiology labs. Innovative configurations like solid-state lasers and reverse acceleration enable intelligent mass spectrometry technology to achieve second-level precise pathogen identification, breaking through traditional mass spectrometry detection bottlenecks. The next-generation fully automatic identification and susceptibility analysis system rivals international advanced standards, covering full-scenario detection of bacteria and fungi, ensuring rapid and comprehensive drug sensitivity reports, providing reliable basis for precise clinical medication.

Recently, a team led by Associate Professor Shen Yajing from the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) successfully integrated artificial intelligence and robotics to develop three groundbreaking smart medical devices. These devices are designed for diagnostic monitoring, surgical assistance, and post-operative rehabilitation, aiming to help doctors address current challenges in diagnosis and treatment, optimize procedures, and improve efficiency, thereby promoting the development of smart healthcare. The team is actively exploring collaborations with public and private institutions, industries, and investors to advance the clinical application and implementation of these projects. Professor Shen's team has developed an AI hand tactile interaction system called PhyTac. This cone-shaped device is equipped with up to 368 sensing units that precisely correspond to various pressure points on the hand. By simply gripping the device and exerting force, patients allow doctors to instantly map the corresponding pressure points on the hand within the AI system. This helps doctors quickly monitor the patient’s rehabilitation progress and can be combined with VR technology to design games for patients to perform rehabilitation training using the device, enabling the formulation of appropriate rehabilitation plans.

Recently, the Health Commission of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region released the "Detailed Information on the Renewal Project of Medical Equipment for County Medical Consortia," with a budget of 600 million yuan. A total of 1,777 units (sets) of equipment are planned for renewal, mainly including medical imaging, radiotherapy, and clinical laboratory equipment. Requirements to be met: covering 14 regions (prefectures and cities) in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Since April, provinces such as Hubei, Henan, Hunan, Hebei, Ningxia, and Sichuan have successively initiated bidding processes for the renewal of county-level medical equipment, with the total budget exceeding 2 billion yuan. According to the latest data from the National Health Commission, as of the end of 2021, China had a total of 17,294 county-level hospitals. Under the "Thousand Counties Project" plan by the National Health Commission in 2022, by 2025, at least 1,000 county hospitals in China are expected to reach the service capability level of tertiary hospitals. The continuous signals from the state indicate that national support for enhancing the capabilities of county-level hospitals has reached a new height, and nearly 17,300 county-level hospitals will undergo comprehensive upgrades.

Recently, the In-depth Integration of Artificial Intelligence in Biomedicine and the Promotion Conference for Suzhou's AI-driven Medical Device Industry Development was held in Suzhou. At the event, the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) Key Laboratory for Research and Evaluation of Intelligent Medical Devices was officially launched and located at the Jiangsu Medical Device Science and Technology Park. The open-call for research topics from the laboratory also commenced simultaneously. This laboratory will focus on innovation in intelligent medical device R&D and enhancement of regulatory capabilities. It aims to develop new tools, methods, standards, and systems for regulating innovative medical devices, addressing key challenges across all links in the industry chain, and promoting the transformation and application of innovative achievements. Additionally, a sub-fund invested by the Jiangsu Provincial Strategic Emerging Industry Mother Fund was announced. The fund has a planned total scale of 1 billion yuan and prioritizes investments in large health industry sectors such as medical devices, biomedicine, and medical services, targeting early-stage and growth-phase projects with high technical barriers and strong commercial prospects.

Recently, the Medical Industry Digital Ecosystem Innovation Conference and the 7th Intelligent Healthcare Innovation Competition National Finals, themed "Empowerment through Computing, Innovative Healthcare," were successfully held. The Wenzhou Medical Imaging Brain Platform, submitted by the Wenzhou Health Information Center, advanced to the national finals after being selected in the provincial division (only 5 projects in Zhejiang Province were chosen) and won the third prize in the national finals' technology innovation track. The Medical Imaging Brain Platform is an imaging artificial intelligence technology application cluster platform developed mainly using medical AI technology in Wenzhou. It has completed the deployment of 12 medical AI technologies, covering all public medical institutions in the city, and has provided more than 12.7 million instances of intelligent imaging analysis. Through AI technology, it effectively alleviates issues such as insufficient medical technical capabilities and shortages of medical personnel in remote areas, improving the standardization of regional healthcare.

Recently, the National Medical Products Administration announced the cancellation of registration certificates for 10 medical devices, including electronic gastroscopes. According to the Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of Medical Devices and based on corporate applications, the National Medical Products Administration has canceled the medical device registration certificates for 10 products from five companies. The 10 products are as follows: electronic gastroscope, ultrasound and electrotherapy apparatus, ultrasound therapy apparatus, shortwave therapy apparatus, traction apparatus, dry salt aerosol therapy apparatus, closed urine meter UnoMeterTMSafetiTMPlus, closed small-scale urine meter and intra-abdominal pressure monitoring device UnoMeterTMAbdoPressureTMKit, and disposable intravenous indwelling needle.

Recently, in order to standardize the online sales behavior of medical devices and ensure public safety in the use of medical equipment, the National Medical Products Administration officially released the "Quality Management Standard for Online Sales of Medical Devices." This Standard will come into effect on October 1, 2025, setting clear requirements in aspects such as qualification review, information display, and risk control, further reinforcing the main responsibilities of online medical device sales enterprises and e-commerce platforms, and promoting high-quality development within the industry. The key measures of the newly released Standard focus on qualifications and information transparency: online sales enterprises must prominently display their business licenses, filing certificates, and other qualification information on the homepage of their websites continuously, and indicate critical information such as the medical device registration certificate number, indications, contraindications, etc., on product pages. For fitting products (such as contact lenses and hearing aids), warning phrases like "Professional fitting required" must be marked. E-commerce platforms are required to strictly review the qualifications of enterprises applying to join the platform, dynamically update records, and verify them every six months.

Recently, in order to further strengthen the position of enterprises as the main players in scientific and technological innovation, promote the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, and accelerate the cultivation and development of new productive forces, Tianjin has formulated the following policies and measures to strongly support the construction of a technology-strong city. For innovative pharmaceuticals and medical devices, support will be provided for key technology research and development such as novel drug discovery, drug delivery, brain-computer interfaces, and gene sequencing, with a maximum project support of 2 million yuan from the municipal financial funds; for biomanufacturing, support will be provided for key technology research and development such as core strain creation, enzyme engineering, and gene editing, with a maximum project support of 10 million yuan from the municipal financial funds. For innovative pharmaceuticals and medical devices, support will be provided for drug clinical trials, generic drug consistency evaluations, and secondary development of major traditional Chinese medicine varieties, with a maximum project support of 15 million yuan from the municipal financial funds; support will be provided for innovative R&D and clinical application of medical devices, with a maximum project support of 5 million yuan from the municipal financial funds; support will be provided for medical institutions to enhance their clinical trial capabilities, with a maximum project support of 2 million yuan from the municipal financial funds; support will be provided for post-marketing evaluation research of pharmaceutical and medical device products, with a maximum project support of 2 million yuan from the municipal financial funds.

Recently, the National Healthcare Security Administration held a special sharing session on "Healthcare Departments Boosting Scientific Innovation," showcasing significant achievements in innovation leadership and collaborative support. The meeting highlighted the promotion of cutting-edge medical technologies such as artificial hearts, brain-computer interfaces, and cochlear implants through the introduction of six new categories of medical service pricing projects, bringing new hope to patients. As an important treatment for end-stage heart failure patients, the high cost of artificial heart therapy was once a major barrier to its widespread adoption. The National Healthcare Security Administration addressed the charging issues related to the implantation, removal, and postoperative adjustment of artificial hearts by uniformly establishing new price items in the cardiovascular project guidelines, including fees for auxiliary device implantation, removal, and equipment costs. Through communication with five listed companies approved in China, guiding enterprises to reduce excessive markups in intermediate distribution links, the overall cost of artificial heart implant surgery has been reduced from millions of yuan to around 700,000 yuan. Aerospace Heart Technology Co., Ltd. took the lead in proactively reducing prices to 499,000 yuan per set, further enhancing the feasibility of artificial heart implant treatments.

Recently, at the Beijing Yizhuang Innovation Release Conference, the Economic and Technological Development Zone (ETDZ) announced a package of policies. Among them, the "Several Opinions of Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone on Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Pharmaceutical and Health Industry" was released. It is expected that by 2027, the industrial output value of the pharmaceutical and health industry in the ETDZ will exceed 120 billion yuan, with more than 25 innovative drugs and medical devices approved for marketing. Specifically, in terms of promoting the integrated development of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, it closely aligns with national strategies, focusing on the layout of regenerative medicine,In future health fields such as brain science and computational biology, support breakthroughs in cutting-edge sectors like cell and gene therapy (CGT) and high-end medical equipment. Fully upgrade support for the pharmaceuticals and healthcare sector: provide rewards of 10 million yuan for Phase II clinical trials and 30 million yuan for Phase III clinical trials of Class 1 innovative drugs (up to 40 million yuan for cell and gene therapy drugs); clear support is also given to veterinary drugs and medical devices. The "Opinions" also open up 100 high-quality medical datasets, accompanied by a data voucher mechanism, to promote the deep integration of "large models + pharmaceutical R&D" and accelerate the development of emerging fields such as computational biology.

Recently, the reporter learned fromOn April 25, at the 2025 Zhengzhou High-Tech Healthcare Industry High-Quality Development Conference, the industrial ecosystem plan for the "Zhengzhou High-Tech MedPark·Medical Device Industrial Park" was announced. The plan aims to create a hundred-billion-level medical device industry cluster in the Central Plains region through three years of development. As a benchmark project for the medical device industry in Henan Province and a key-supported park by the provincial government, the park covers an area of 500 mu with a total investment exceeding 5 billion yuan. It focuses on three main directions: digital healthcare, high-end consumables, and intelligent equipment. It is expected to attract over 200 companies, with an annual output value surpassing 10 billion yuan. The first phase is scheduled for completion and operation by 2025. The park will also feature supporting facilities such as a scientific research transformation platform, a financial services hub, and a smart logistics and warehousing system, forming a closed-loop integration of "R&D—pilot testing—production—sales."