Support brings success, big-time
The Zhangjiang National Innovation Demonstration Zone is seeing rapid growth in the medical device and systems development sector.
Its total industrial output value for medical devices manufacturing reached 12.8 billion yuan ($1.84 billion) in 2017, an increase of 10.1 percent compared with 2016, according to the zone.
Consider Ankon Technologies Co. Established in 2008, Ankon is a pioneer in the development of capsule endoscopy systems, which are made of polymer medical materials and can be used in the detection of diseases.
Integrated with more than 300 precise components, the devices have been developed using more than 80 patents for technological innovation. Ankon has, for example, generated patents involving magnetic field control, optical imaging and chip integration, according to the company.
The company has opened four research and development centers in Silicon Valley in the United States, Shanghai, Wuhan in Hubei province and Wuxi in Jiangsu province. Its products have won various international and provincial awards, according to the company.
Ankon has established production lines in Wuhan and Shanghai. The Shanghai production line, established in 2014, has an annual output capacity of one million units. The production line in Wuhan was launched in 2015.
Ankon has currently expanded its service network to countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom.
Ankon has won attention from the capital market in recent years. In August 2017, Ankon obtained $100 million in strategic investment from six investors including SoftBank.
Ankon’s products were displayed at an exhibition, known as the Road of Rejuvenation, in Beijing in July, along with other innovative products such as the world’s largest radio telescope — the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope, also known as FAST — and
Fuxing bullet trains. The exhibition attracted thousands of visitors this year.
Over the past few years, the zone has constantly promoted the development and application of big data technology in the healthcare industry.
Supported by the zone, a medical big data public service platform was established by the Second Military Medical University and Biotecan Biomedical Technology Co in 2016. The total investment involved reached 200 million yuan.
The platform can provide functions such as data mining and precision medical decision making and gene data processing. It has achieved outstanding results in collecting data and analyzing diseases such as prostate cancer.
Biotecan is one of the enterprises focusing on precision medicine and medical big data in Zhangjiang. The company has launched a series of gene-related lab testing programs, and has built many molecular medical diagnostic labs in China’s top hospitals, according to Biotecan.