The domestic swallowing type endoscope R&D positive heat market scale will reach 100 billion yuan

The business club reported on July 15 that the launch of the endoscope has been considered by the international medical community as a revolutionary advancement in medical examination technology. At present, various kinds of endoscopes have been developed on the market, including various kinds of endoscopes such as gastroscopes, enteroscopes, laryngoscopes, hysteroscopes, etc., and are widely used by hospitals around the world. However, traditional endoscopes also have some inherent shortcomings, such as being prone to cause nausea and vomiting to the patient, causing the patient to feel painful; moreover, traditional endoscopes also have “blind areas”, for example, the enteroscope can only perform large-intestine examination but cannot be examined. To the small intestine. These inaccessible sites often cause diseases with high incidence of digestive system diseases such as duodenal ulcer and Crohn's disease.

In recent years, the digestive tract disease tester has developed a revolutionary new product - swallowable endoscope, also known as "capsule endoscope." Its size and shape are very similar to those of ordinary medicinal capsules, which is 1.2 x 0.4 inches, which is only slightly larger than ordinary capsules.

Overseas listed second-generation products

According to reports, the shell of the swallowing endoscope is made of a transparent, high-molecular material that is resistant to digestion. It houses a miniature camera and is driven by a high-performance battery. After the patient swallowed the "capsule" with warm water, the built-in miniature camera immediately started working and the patient was photographed from the stomach to the inside of the intestine, and the photograph was transmitted to the doctor. The doctor can not only observe the patient's digestive tract lesions at any time, but also freeze and magnify the important photos so that the lesions can be found timely and the diagnosis can be made.

According to reports, this swallowing type of endoscope can only take 2 pictures per second initially. After improvement, the shooting speed has been increased to 14 per second. This speed has been able to meet photographs taken at any angle in the digestive tract, allowing doctors to more accurately determine the location of the lesion.

At present, not only British and Israeli companies have developed swallowed-type endoscopes, but Japan is also developing similar products. It is reported that Olympus Corporation of Japan has independently developed its own swallowing endoscope several years ago, but its shooting speed is only 2 sheets per second, and early swallowing endoscope products developed in cooperation with the United Kingdom and Israel Similar performance.

According to foreign reports, swallowed endoscope PillCam was first listed in EU countries in 2006 and was approved by the FDA in the United States in 2007. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide have used swallowed endoscopes. However, the price of this product is very expensive. The price of each PillCam is about 400 US dollars. However, it is understood that this product has entered the medical insurance reimbursement medicine/medical device list in some countries in the European Union and the United States, so it does not increase for patients. economic burden.

Recently, the British company has recently developed a second-generation swallowing endoscope. According to the company’s CEO, the second-generation swallowed endoscope has better technical performance than the first-generation swallowed endoscope. Its main advantage is that the odds of finding a polyp greater than 6 mm (large intestine) increased from 64% to 84%; the rate of colorectal adenomas increased by 6 percentage points (from 73% to 79%), while the key to colon cancer The removal rate is 1/3 higher than conventional colonoscopy. Moreover, the clinical use of hundreds of thousands of patients in the world over the past few years has shown no adverse side effects reported so far. In addition, the second-generation swallowed endoscope adopts a wide-angle lens micro lens, which can make doctors more clearly find the location of the lesion and the degree of lesions.

Long road to domestic promotion

Although the development of swallowed endoscopes in China has just begun, it has made significant progress. Research institutes including Chongqing Jinshan Science and Technology Group, Xiamen University, China University of Science and Technology, and Tsinghua University are all developing and developing their respective swallowed endoscope products, and some of the products that have been under research have the same technical performance as foreign counterparts. Better than nothing.

According to preliminary estimates, the domestically-swallowed endoscope is priced at about 1,000 yuan per capsule, which is much lower than the price of similar products in the West. It is still at its own expense. According to the calculation of the head of the scientific research department of Xiamen University, the potential market size of endoscopes that can be swallowed in China will reach 100 billion yuan. If swallowing endoscopy can be included in the scope of Medicare reimbursement as in the European Union or the United States, then use this. The number of patients for a new type of bowel examination device will increase dramatically. However, according to the current situation, it is difficult to open the domestic market for sales in the near future due to its expensive price.