Institutional insurance investors are eyeing cooperation with neurological hospitals to explore new opportunities in health insurance and management.
Human brain is the center of the nervous system. Image credit: Alina Grubnyak/Unsplash
Sanbo Brain Hospital, a neurological therapy provider, announced the closure of its Series B fundraising of over CNY 800 million, which is the biggest deal in the medical service industry this year. The investment is led by Kangtai Insurance, joined by CEC Capital Future Fund, Guangfa Xinde Investment, Hongding Investment and other capital firms.
It has been over two years since it raised hundreds of millions of Chinese yuan from Kaitai Capital in Series A in November 2017. The insurer-backed bankroll this round will further pave the path for in-depth cooperation between the insurance field and the medical institute in the arising market of health insurance and private health management.
‘The neurological therapy market is a vast market with high technical threshold,’ says Mr.Xu, the representative of Taikang Asset,‘ after nearly 20 years accumulation in technology, brand image, talents and scale, Sanbo has become the flagship in private healthcare institute in neurology.’
Established in November 2003, the private neurology-specific medical service provider has developed the chain-hospital group in the neurological therapy field. The last 16 years witnessed its expanded ion from Beijing to other six capital cities in different provinces, gaining a nationally well-known reputation.
Different from other private hospitals in neurology therapies, Sanbo Brain aims to build an ‘academy-like private hospital,’ allowing neurological doctors to benefit from the flexibility to conduct academic medical research within the talent cultivation scheme. Based on its training program, this private hospital has nurtured an advanced talent pool of over 200 people, with degrees from masters, doctors and post-doctors.
No less complicated than to study the secret of the universe, the human brain is considered as the last cutting-edge area in human science. WHO points out that neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, epilepsy, depression and schizophrenia, are the most unaffordable in all types.
This neurological medical company mainly focuses on brain tumors, epilepsy, spine diseases and neuro-related eye illnesses and mental disorders. Its brand hospital, Sanbo Brain Hospital Capital Medical University, has come into the tier-one rank of neurosurgery, listed with other two local prestigious public medical facilities - Tiantan Hospital and Xuanwu Hospital.
China’s national project in brain science was launched last year, pivoting ‘one-body, two wings’ strategy for the coming five to ten years. ‘One body’ refers to the research on the origin of the human brain’s cognition functions. ‘Two wings’ means protection and creation, which indicates that the government plans to heavyweight the resources on curing critical brain-related disease and investment in the research and development in artificial intelligence.
Meanwhile, more niche segments in neuro-healthcare are thrust with a variety of AI-driven tech companies. In the most active segment of therapies for epilepsy seizure, Ali Health, the healthcare platform in Alibaba’s (BABA:NYSE) ecosystem, launched its electroencephalogram (EEG) analysis engine in May 2019. So did IBM, the IT service giant in the U.S., introduce the AI-based auxiliary diagnosis system.