As the "tip of the pyramid" of high-end medical equipment, surgical robots have spawned a huge market worth $13 billion and a compound annual growth rate of 22.5% worldwide. On May 31, Frost & Sullivan released the "China Neurosurgical Robot Market Research Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), which comprehensively demonstrated the development status and future of the neurosurgical robot industry, an important branch of surgical robots, in mainland China with detailed data and information.
The report pointed out that driven by various factors such as the acceleration of population aging, the government's strong support for innovative medical fields, and future domestic substitution, the scale of China's surgical robot market has grown rapidly. From 2018 to 2022, the overall market size of surgical robots in China grew at a compound annual growth rate of 43%, and the market size is expected to reach RMB 22.45 billion and RMB 70.85 billion in 2026 and 2030.
Among them, the mainland neurosurgery robot industry is particularly fast. At present, domestic neurosurgical robot products such as Baihui Weikang, Huazhi Minimally Invasive Surgery, Huake Precision, and United Imaging Zhirong have been approved by the NMPA for marketing. According to the data of the report, in 2023, domestic brands will occupy an absolute dominant position in the domestic neurosurgical robot market with a market share of 98.7%, of which the market share of ROIDMI series surgical robots under Baihui Weikang will reach 52.6%.
Accumulation: Market demand drives efficient product iteration
Behind the huge market is the reality of China's medical and health environment.
Taking the well-known "cerebral hemorrhage" as an example, more than 1 million new cases of cerebral hemorrhage occur in China every year. According to the report, cerebral hemorrhage, which has an incidence rate of only about 30% of new stroke cases in mainland China, accounts for 60% of all new stroke deaths. Compared with other countries, China has one of the higher disease burdens of intracerebral hemorrhage, with morbidity and mortality rates about twice the global average.
At present, for patients with cerebral hemorrhage, most primary hospitals in China still mainly use traditional craniotomy hematoma removal. According to the statistics of the report, from 2022 to 2026, the compound growth rate of intracranial hematoma removal in mainland China will be about 9.5%, which has become the main surgical treatment for cerebral hemorrhage in China, and it is expected that by 2030, the number of intracranial hematoma removal surgeries will further increase to 239,000.
However, under this traditional surgery, the wound is large, and the side effects and complications are obvious. In addition, due to the complexity of the brain nervous system and limited space, the quality of surgery is very dependent on the professional skills of the surgeon, and most primary hospitals are often unable to meet the treatment needs of patients due to external factors such as conditions and resources.
Driven by urgent clinical needs, the continent's neurosurgery treatment plan is also seeking breakthroughs, and has achieved technological iteration from stereotactic frameworks, to surgical navigation systems, and then to surgical robots.
Compared with the traditional surgical navigation system, the surgical robot integrates mature navigation and imaging technology, and realizes the automatic positioning of the target target by adding a high-precision robotic arm, so that doctors can perform subtle and complex surgical operations in long-term complex operations, eliminate the errors caused by natural hand tremor and doctor fatigue, provide a stable and reliable platform for intraoperative operations, and greatly improve the efficiency, safety and accuracy of neurosurgery.
In this context, neurosurgical robots have begun to be gradually popularized in the clinical use of neurosurgery such as intracerebral hemorrhage by virtue of their advantages of precision, safety, intelligence and minimally invasiveness. The report mentions that compared with neuroendoscopic surgery, robot-assisted stereotactic hematoma puncture and drainage significantly reduces the average treatment cost of patients and effectively improves the quality of life. The results of 1-year follow-up after surgery showed that compared with neuroendoscopic surgery, robot-assisted surgery saved 36,862.14 RMB per patient in treatment costs and enabled patients to obtain 0.062 additional Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QLIs). QALYs）。
Not only that, neurosurgical robots are also widely used in the precision treatment of neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease, trigeminal neuralgia, epilepsy, and brain tumors.
According to the report, the compound annual growth rate of the number of Parkinson's patients in China from 2018 to 2022 was 3.7%, and the number of Parkinson's patients in China is expected to reach 4.034 million in 2030. Although there is no complete cure for Parkinson's disease, deep brain stimulation (DBS) can effectively alleviate tremors and movement disorders in Parkinson's patients and improve their quality of life through precise electrode positioning. Robot-assisted DBS surgery uses multimodal image fusion technology (such as MRI and CT) to carry out fine surgical planning and reduce human error and operation time, so as to achieve high-precision electrode implantation, which has shown important clinical value in improving surgical treatment effect, reducing postoperative recurrence, accelerating recovery and improving the quality of life of patients.
In the field of trigeminal neuralgia, according to the epidemiological statistics of the 2020 Chinese Expert Consensus on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Peripheral Neuropathic Pain, the prevalence of trigeminal neuralgia in mainland China is 182 per 100,000 people. And the new survey of the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that trigeminal neuralgia is tending to be younger, and the prevalence of the population is rising. Studies have shown that robot-assisted balloon compression for the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia also has significant advantages in terms of improving surgical success, reducing complications, and improving patient comfort.
From cerebral hemorrhage to Parkinson's, the application of neurosurgical robots is more than that. In the future, with the continuous iteration and upgrading of technology, neurosurgery robots will integrate more cutting-edge technologies and gradually expand to more abundant clinical application scenarios such as neurospine and brain-computer interface.
Innovative breakthroughs: Accelerate the application and popularization of domestic solutions
While cutting-edge medical devices are accelerating their penetration into the clinical market, the localization of related products is also underway. Some neurosurgical robot manufacturers have made breakthroughs in the localization and self-development of core components and got rid of import dependence.
According to the information collected in the report, the ROIDMI RM-50 neurosurgical robot, which is widely recognized by primary hospitals, has completely independent intellectual property rights. As the core components of the surgical robot, the optical tracking locator and the robotic arm have achieved "domestic substitution", which makes the domestic surgical robot compared with imported products, while meeting the clinical needs, it can significantly reduce the purchase cost of hospital equipment, so that more hospitals can "afford" advanced neurosurgical treatment equipment.
The promotion of localization has also brought products and market strategies that are more suitable for the local Chinese market.
Baihui Weikang has realized the independent research and development of the core technology of surgical robots, and has complete technical autonomy, so as to build surgical robots into a general-purpose platform. Different from other mainstream business models that require binding of special consumables to similar products, it realizes the "unbinding" of surgical robot products and consumables, avoiding the additional costs that may be brought by a single consumable, and allowing more patients to "afford" advanced neurosurgical treatment technology.
Specifically, as a general-purpose platform product, ROIDI Surgical Robot is compatible with a variety of different categories and brands of therapeutic consumables, fully meeting the differentiated clinical needs of different medical institutions and patients. This will further reduce the treatment cost of patients, improve equipment utilization, and accelerate the clinical penetration of neurosurgical robots in the grassroots market.
In the context of cutting-edge technology to bring patients a better treatment experience and reduce the cost of clinical use by "unbinding" with consumables, domestic companies led by Baihui Weikang are rapidly penetrating the domestic primary medical market with all the localization of core components of neurosurgical robot products.
According to public information, the ROIDMI RM-50 neurosurgical robot under Baihui Weikang has successively landed in dozens of hospitals in Guizhou Province, Xining City, Qinghai Province, Dianjiang County, Chongqing City, Xing'an League of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Urumqi City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and other places, and has carried out clinical operations for a long time, providing more efficient and standardized clinical treatment for patients in remote areas. With the rapid expansion of grassroots applications and the joint efforts of the original core market, ROIDMI series neurosurgical robots have achieved a breakthrough in clinical application with more than 8,000 surgeries in 2023.
For a long time, the mainland has maintained a high level of attention to the construction of the primary medical and health system. In March this year, the State Council issued the "Opinions on Further Improving the Medical and Health Service System", which clearly pointed out that it is necessary to further balance the distribution of medical resources on the mainland and improve the capacity of primary medical and health care.
At present, the wide application of neurosurgical robots at the grassroots level has begun to solve the dilemma of insufficient diagnosis and treatment capacity and uneven distribution of professional and technical personnel in primary hospitals, benefiting a wider range of patient groups and bringing more accurate and effective treatment options to grassroots patients. In the context of expanding the scope of medical security in mainland China and promoting the sinking of high-quality medical resources to the grassroots level, domestic neurosurgical robot companies represented by Baihui Weikang are also expected to further release the market demand for surgical robot products.
Forward-looking layout: accelerate the global market
On the basis of inclusiveness in China, domestic neurosurgical robots have also penetrated into overseas markets with the main theme of "going out".
In December 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Health Commission jointly held a working meeting of the Leading Group for Promoting the Development and Application of Medical Equipment, emphasizing the need to actively build a platform for medical enterprise exchanges and jointly promote the "going out" of excellent medical equipment. On May 23 this year, the Beijing Municipal Government issued the "Beijing Action Plan for Accelerating Collaborative Innovation in Medicine and Health (2024-2026)", proposing to support enterprises to accelerate the overseas registration of products, expand sales channels, and improve market development capabilities.
From the perspective of the global market, the increasing spending on healthcare in countries around the world has provided a strong impetus for the medical device market. Domestic medical equipment companies are gradually winning international recognition through technological innovation and improving product quality. The report pointed out that in recent years, domestic neurosurgical robots have made remarkable progress in technology, so that the products have the characteristics of high precision, flexibility and easy operation, and also have a relatively low price advantage in manufacturing and maintenance costs, which can meet the urgent needs of countries and regions with shortage of medical resources for cost-effective high-end medical equipment.
For example, ROIDI neurosurgical robots under Baihui Weikang have completed overseas contracts in Kazakhstan, Nepal, Thailand and other countries. In March 2024, ROIDMI Surgical Robot has successfully landed in Kazakhstan, and the assistant doctor successfully completed the country's first surgical robot-assisted neurosurgery, and in the following month, more than 20 robotic surgical applications have been successfully carried out. It has achieved a new breakthrough in the international application of neurosurgical robots.
According to the analysis of the report, with the further maturity of product technology and application and the continuous improvement of the international market's acceptance of China's high-end medical equipment, neurosurgical robots will continue to promote the sinking of high-quality medical resources and improve the level of medical services in primary hospitals, while further broadening the development space and opening up markets in emerging fields and developing countries. The huge incremental overseas market is also expected to provide new business breakthroughs for related enterprises and open up a second growth curve.
It is foreseeable that with the acceleration of China's high-end medical device going overseas and the deepening of the "Belt and Road" initiative, China's high-end medical equipment companies represented by neurosurgical robots will also rely on overseas markets to further polish product quality and technology, participate in global competition more fully in emerging medical fields, and promote the continuous improvement of the influence of "Made in China" in the international medical field.