(August 6, 2021 – Hong Kong) China Grand Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Holdings Limited (“GP (HK)” or the “Company”, together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”, stock code: 00512) is pleased to announce that the Group has entered into strategic cooperation with United Stated based CoRISMA MCS Systems, Inc (“CoRISMA”). The Group will obtain approximately 22.2% equity interests of CoRISMA with USD12 million consideration, and will further invest in the follow-up to obtain the exclusive development, manufacturing and commercialization rights of CoRISMA series products, an innovative medical device for the treatment of heart failure, in Greater China (including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan), Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam (“Licensed Region”), and to enable the commercialization of the products in the Licensed Region.
The field of cerebro-cardiovascular precision interventional diagnosis and treatment is one of the Group’s core strategic areas. The global innovative advanced heart failure therapeutic system introduced by the Group this time is another global innovative product in this field after intravascular shockwave calcification treatment system and Heartlight X3 laser ablation platform. It improves the comprehensive deployment of the five strategic markets, including vascular intervention, neurointervention, structural cardiac disease, electrophysiology and heart failure, and is a milestone progress of the Group in developing world-leading cerebro-cardiovascular precision interventional platform. After the completion of this transaction, the Group will have nine products covering five directions, two of them have been approved for commercialization in China, and six of them are expected to be approved for commercialization in China before the end of 2025.
CoRISMA, founded in 2018, is an innovative medical device company incubated by the Bonde Artificial Heart Laboratory, Yale University, focusing on the development of global innovative medical devices for patients with severe heart failure. Yale University holds part of CoRISMA’s equity. CoRISMA co-founder Dr. Pramod Bonde is a cardiac surgeon at Yale New Haven Hospital and a leading researcher in the field of heart failure treatment. This transaction will promote in-depth cooperation between the Group and Yale University and other top international institutions.
Through minimally invasive surgery, CoRISMA devices will be designed to provide a treatment method with less trauma, higher safety, no power cord infection, and fewer complications for patients with end-stage heart failure.
Heart failure refers to the failure of the heart to adequately circulate blood to meet the body’s metabolic demands. This can result when illness, medical treatment, or disease weakens the heart. According to the “European Journal of Heart Failure”, heart failure is affecting more than 26 million patients worldwide. Among which, there are approximately 13.70 million patients with heart failure in China. The weighted prevalence of heart failure is 1.3% among 35-year-old or older people. In the past 15 years, the overall prevalence of heart failure in China has increased by 44%. According to the New York Heart Association (NYHA) heart function classification, heart failure is divided into stages I to IV, and patient with end-stage heart failure in stages IIIB and IV account for approximately 15%. Due to various limiting factors, only very few patients with end-stage heart failure have received treatments, representing huge unmet potential clinical needs. In addition, as aging population increasing in China, the incidence of chronic diseases that can cause or induce heart failure, such as coronary heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity, are still increasing. Therefore, there is a huge market potential in China.
The Board of China Grand Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Holdings Limited, commented, “Cooperating with CoRISMA is an important step of the Group in developing world-leading cerebro-cardiovascular precision interventional platform, and its advanced heart failure therapeutic system will further promote the Group to build-up a product cluster of technologically innovative high-end medical devices. Looking forward, regarding ‘introduction and landing’ and ‘synchronously independent and localized R&D’ as its development direction, the Group will realize the construction of a dual system of ‘local + global’ R&D and production, as well as accelerate product launches and improve its own R&D capability. It is the Group’s target to build this segment into a leading ‘cerebro-cardiovascular precision interventional diagnosis and treatment platform’ in the PRC and even the world. The Group will strive to provide patients with more diverse treatment options to benefit more patients in the globe and create greater returns for shareholders.”
