Surui officially launched its IPO, and its laparoscopic surgical robot is comparable to Da Vinci

Recently, Beijing Shurui Robotics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shurui") and CITIC Securities signed a listing guidance agreement, officially launching the A-share IPO process.

In recent years, surgical robots have accelerated their development, and 2021 is regarded by the industry as the first year of surgical robots. During this period, many domestic and foreign companies have made breakthroughs in the surgical robot field, and their products have been successfully registered and approved. Minimally invasive robots also officially landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on November 2, 2021.

In addition to Surui, another surgical robot company, Elite Medical , is also in the process of IPO and will be officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as early as the first half of 2023.

Leading domestic laparoscopic surgical robot company

According to information, Surui is a high-tech enterprise dedicated to the completely independent research and development, production and sales of single-port and multi-port universal minimally invasive laparoscopic surgical robot systems. Relying on the innovative design of "dual continuum mechanism", the product is equipped with a high-performance deformable surgical arm that is agile and precise in movement. Its comprehensive performance is comparable to the world's top single-port surgical robots, and it has broken the years of foreign technology monopoly in one fell swoop.

In 2020, the Surui laparoscopic surgical robot was approved by the Medical Device Review Center of the National Medical Products Administration, becoming China's first single-port surgical robot to pass the special review procedure for innovative medical devices. It has been clinically used in many departments such as urology, gynecology, general surgery, and thoracic surgery.

Laparoscopic surgical robots are currently the most widely used surgical robots, accounting for about 60% of the market. They can be divided into multi-port laparoscopic surgical robots and single-port laparoscopic surgical robots. As the name suggests, multi-port robots use multiple incisions to complete surgical treatment, with a wide surgical field of view and more convenient operation; single-port robots only use a single incision, with less trauma, faster recovery, and more advantages in performing surgery in highly focused narrow spaces.

Undoubtedly, the development of a single-port laparoscopic surgical robot is more difficult. The Surui single-port laparoscopic surgical robot is based on continuum serpentine arm technology, which can achieve precise cutting and suturing. In 2021, it completed Asia's first pure single-port robotic radical prostatectomy. With the same surgical effect, the number of incisions is less and the area is smaller than the da Vinci multi-port system.

From the perspective of technological innovation, the Surui laparoscopic surgical robot has the advantages of single-port ultra-minimally invasive, flexible and powerful operation, a large field of view adjustment range, and safe coordinated positioning arm movement. The four serpentine surgical arms enter the patient's body through a single incision with a diameter of only 2.5 cm to minimize patient trauma and achieve minimally invasive treatment effects. The serpentine surgical arms take into account both force load and flexibility, and can not only pull and move, but also bend in any direction, making it convenient to operate in narrow spaces. At the same time, the 3D endoscope has high-definition vision, a cobra posture, and a top-down angle, which are conducive to deep anatomical exposure. The extracorporeal positioning arms have a fixed spacing during surgery to eliminate the risk of collision during surgery. The positioning arms move in coordination as a whole and can be reached in any direction in space, driving the serpentine surgical arms to easily switch surgical areas and increase the coverage of the surgical field.

In June last year, Shurui completed a C1 round of financing of several hundred million yuan. Since its establishment, Shurui has received support from Tianfeng Capital, Shunwei Capital, Huiding Investment, Guotou Merchants, Chende Capital, Medtronic, Shanghai Biomedicine Fund, Yuanxing Capital and other institutions. Before the IPO, Shunwei Capital was Shurui's largest institutional investor.

Favorable policies accelerate the development of surgical robots

As an innovative intelligent medical device, surgical robots can perform delicate surgical operations in human cavities, blood vessels and nerve-dense areas. They have the advantages of accurate positioning, minimal surgical trauma, low risk of infection and rapid postoperative recovery, and can meet patients' needs for high-quality medical services.

With the aging of my country's population, the incidence of many major diseases has increased, which has put higher requirements on surgical technology. The high precision, high stability and low trauma of surgical robots meet the market demand well, and also help to alleviate or even solve the imbalance between supply and demand of medical services and comprehensively improve the efficiency of medical supply.

However, due to the late start and the high price of surgical robots, surgical robots are still rarely used in my country. In 2021, the penetration rate of laparoscopic surgical robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery in China was only 0.7%, while in the United States it was 13.3% during the same period. This also means that domestic surgical robots have great room for development.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Finance announced that it would adjust import and export tariffs for 2023, including a new sub-item for surgical robots. For surgical robots, the "Most-Favoured-Nation Tariff Table for Some Information Technology Products" shows that from January 2023, the import tariff will be zero according to the most-favored-nation tariff, encouraging foreign surgical robot products and technologies to enter the Chinese market. This will undoubtedly accelerate the application of surgical robots in my country.

According to statistics, the global surgical robot market size has grown from 23.8 billion yuan in 2016 to 85.4 billion yuan in 2021, and is expected to reach 402.8 billion yuan by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of approximately 21.5%.

However, due to my country's large population base, strong demand, and favorable policies, the development speed of China's surgical robot market will far exceed the global average growth rate. Frost & Sullivan predicts that by 2026, the scale of my country's surgical robot market will reach US$3.8 billion (RMB 26.5 billion), with a compound annual growth rate of 44.3%.