As China experiences a high increase in patients with cardiovascular disease, particularly coronary heart disease, companies manage to raise further funds.
Recently, Shanghai-based drugs developer Bioheart (百心安) carried out its Series B funding round, worth CNY 60 million (equivalent to USD 8.5 million), enhancing the firm’s abilities to develop more sophisticated drug stents.
The funding round was led by Shanghai VC firm CD Capital (辰德资本), Shenzhen-based investment fund Qianhai FOF (前海母基金) and tech investment company Zhejiang Technology Investment (浙江科投).
Founded in 2014 by Philip Li Wang, the heart stent research firm engages in the production, development and sales of drug-eluting stents (metal mesh tubes inserted during PCI), which comprise the primary treatment for patients with coronary artery disease.
The recent fundraising will support the company as it moves to its third phase of a drugs-eluting stents trial and will cover the costs of some product registration.
The medical device firm has managed to raise a cumulative sum of over CNY 110 million (equivalent to USD 15.7 million) in three funding rounds. In 2017, it completed a Series A funding round worth over CNY 50 million.
Another Chinese healthcare company has made a remarkable achievement in the international medical scene in the area of devices. The Hong Kong-based medical products provider MicroPort Scientific Corporation received international recognition when its self-developed heart stent clinical trial results were published online in one of the world-leading medical journals, ‘The Lancet.’ Their stent was named Firehawk.
The Chinese medtech company has also been competing with its US counterpart Endotronix. The US-based medtech company focuses on the treatment of Heart Failure (HF). On October 1, the company managed to raise a Series D funding round worth USD 70 million to solve the heart failure problem.
The US digital healthcare firm designed its own-self developed system, ‘Cordella,’ which helps patients suffering from heart failure stay out of the hospital with streamlined care and remote medication titration.
The global coronary stents market reached USD 7.16 million in 2016, and it’s expected to reach USD 10.31 billion in 2021, at a CAGR of 7.6%. Significant factors driving growth include technological advancements, an increasing number of PCI procedures and the rising burden of CAD, according to data from Markets and Markets.
When it comes to China's huge population, coronary heart disease (CHD) is the second largest cause of cardiovascular death. The data revealed that there were 270 million cardiovascular patients in China in 2017, including 11 million with CHD.
Many Chinese companies are engaged in raising significant funds for the research and development of high-end stent devices to better respond to the increased demand. More sophisticated tools like Firehawk are expected to be developed in the near future to allow more patients to be cured, both domestically and globally.