Fosun Pharmaceutical, a leading healthcare group, has taken a substantial step towards introducing particle therapy systems to hospitals in mainland China, aligning with Beijing’s efforts to make advanced medical treatment accessible to cancer patients across the country.
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The Shanghai-based company, a subsidiary of China’s non-state-owned conglomerate Fosun International, formed a partnership with Leo Cancer Care on Thursday, pledging to distribute the UK firm’s Marie medical facilities in the world’s largest consumer market. The deal came three months after the UK company secured regulatory clearance for the Marie system from the US Food and Drug Administration.
The partnership “is not only about introducing the Marie system to China, but also about driving the evolution of China’s national therapy industry towards one that places greater emphasis on human-centred care, patient comfort and integration of advanced technology,” Stephen Towe, CEO of Leo Cancer Care, said in a media briefing.
The agreement was signed at the China International Import Expo (CIIE), the world’s largest import trade fair, in Shanghai.
Towe said the Marie system could reduce total treatment costs by 50 per cent compared with existing therapies. “We are able to make the machine 20 times smaller than conventional radiation [technology] in conventional proton therapies,” he said.
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Particle therapy, encompassing both the proton and carbon ion methods, allows doctors to increase the dose of radiation to a tumour while minimising the effects to surrounding healthy tissue.