Innovative Medical Announces Rollout of Bolin Brain-Computer Interface C-End Products for Home Use in 2026

China Securities News (Wang Lu) — On the afternoon of April 23, Zhejiang Shanxiahu Pearl Group Co., Ltd. (002173) held the 2024 annual on-site earnings briefing.

At the meeting, Ma Jianjian, the president of the company, introduced the basic situation and operating characteristics of the hospitals under the company, as well as the overall development and changes in the medical industry in recent years. Notably, Ma Sanguang, the assistant to the chairman of the company, gave a brief introduction to the business development of Cereblink under the company. He stated that the C-end products developed by Cereblink for stroke and hemiplegic patients will be launched and sold this year.

Ma Jianjian stated that the main business of Zhejiang Shanxiahu Pearl Group Co., Ltd. is comprehensive medical services, which fall under the category of basic medical services. The local medical insurance bureaus where the subsidiary hospitals are located are the primary settlement entities for the revenue of these hospitals. In recent years, the state has increasingly emphasized the social welfare attributes of basic medical services. The subsidiary hospitals of the company have adapted to the changing trends in macro policies by strengthening supply chain management, coordinating the allocation of medical resources within the hospitals, and launching self-funded medical programs, thereby ensuring the continuous, stable, and healthy operation of the subsidiary hospitals.

Ma Jianjian stated that in recent years, due to the impact of adjustments in medical insurance settlement policies, the level of medical service charges at the company's affiliated hospitals has decreased compared to the previous year, leading to a decline in the gross profit margin of the medical business. As a result, although the outpatient and inpatient volumes at the affiliated hospitals increased in 2024 compared to the previous year, their operating performance declined.

Regarding the market's high attention on Cereblink's products, Ma Sangguang, assistant to the chairman of the company, introduced that stroke patients with hemiplegia lose effective control over the affected limbs. Thus, bimanual coordination actions that are very simple for healthy individuals, such as unscrewing a bottle cap to drink water, are difficult for hemiplegic patients to perform. Cereblink's upper limb motor function assistance and enhancement system (C-end) enables hemiplegic patients to achieve autonomous control of elbow flexion/extension and hand opening/closing movements. The affected upper limb can complete basic coarse movements with the help of the system, re-establishing coordination with the healthy side to restore fundamental self-care abilities in daily life.

Ma Sangguang further introduced the market promotion of Cereblink in the B-end (medical institutions) and C-end (consumer market). The B-end product of Cereblink (Upper Limb Exoskeleton Active Rehabilitation Training System) is mainly used by hemiplegic patients undergoing rehabilitation training in hospital rehabilitation departments. It also provides rehabilitation doctors with functions such as patient rehabilitation data management and personalized rehabilitation plan customization. Compared with the B-end product, the basic technical principles of the C-end product are the same. However, since the C-end product is primarily designed for personal home use by hemiplegic patients, it does not have multi-user functionality or the robust patient rehabilitation data management and personalized rehabilitation plan customization features provided to rehabilitation doctors in the B-end product.

Ma Sangguang revealed that currently, Cereblink's B-end products have officially entered multi-center clinical trials at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang Hospital, and Hangzhou First People's Hospital. If the related work proceeds smoothly, it is expected to complete the registration application for Class II medical devices by the first half of 2026. Cereblink’s C-end product, developed for stroke patients with hemiplegia, has now entered the mass production stage and will be launched successively this year.

Ma Sangguang stated that in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai region, hemiplegic patients over 60 years old, who have poor self-care abilities, are often assisted by live-in nannies hired by families with better economic conditions, at a cost of approximately 80,000-120,000 yuan per year. After using Cereblink's C-end product, since the hemiplegic patients can achieve basic self-care with the help of the system, the patient’s family can replace the live-in nanny with hourly workers, saving about 40,000-60,000 yuan per year.

Ma Sangguang stated that in recent years, due to lifestyle and dietary habits, the number of stroke hemiplegia patients under 60 years old has been increasing annually. Since most patients under 60 are usually still working before the onset and are the primary source of household income, they have a strong desire for rehabilitation after the onset. Based on the current standard charges of traditional methods in hospitals, taking Zhejiang as an example, the charge for a single 30-minute session is 66 yuan, with a maximum of two sessions per day. Including transportation costs, if patients persist in receiving rehabilitation training at the hospital, the annual rehabilitation cost would be nearly 65,000 yuan. After using Cereblink’s consumer-end product, patients no longer need to commute and wait for rehabilitation training. They can train anytime and anywhere in their home environment without time restrictions. This helps reduce family pressure and assists patients in gradually reintegrating into society.