AstraZeneca, as a founding partner, officially inaugurated Wuxi International Life Science Innovation Park on September 7, 2019. The new life science park sets a world-class ecosystem where local and international companies, government, and medical and academic institutions will be able to join forces to generate innovative advances in medical research.

HCmed Innovations Co., Ltd. (HCmed) has been selected as the first batch companies to join Wuxi International Life Science Innovation Park. HCmed specializes on the development of handheld devices for inhaled drug delivery therapy. It focuses on the delivery of high value therapeutic drugs by providing a customizable platform that increases nebulization performance, ensuring medications are efficiently carried into the lower tract of the lungs and enabling a well-controlled treatment for respiratory diseases.

Vice President of AstraZeneca China, Tina Xu, said: "AstraZeneca is full with experience in multiple diseases treatments and we look forward to working with the municipal government and Wuxi High-tech District to create a influential ecosystem that can support and accelerate the development of startup company from early research and development through to commercialization, which would benefit patients in China and global."

Chronic respiratory diseases have been categorized by the World Health Organization as one of the four major chronic diseases. In Mainland China, the prevalence of respiratory diseases such as asthma has highly increased in recent years. It is expected that the number of people suffering from these conditions will exceed 60 million. In 2017, The market for asthma and COPD was estimated at RMB 44 billion in Mainland China, including long-term use of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) and bronchodilators.

Pulmicort Respules (budesonide suspension) is a well-known inhaled corticosteroid produced by AstraZeneca with an annual market size of over RMB 6 billion in China. The nature of its suspension formulation makes it difficult to be nebulized by most mesh nebulizers, while mesh clogging is often described as a recurrent issue. The innovative delivery technology and easy-to-clean feature of HCmed's mesh nebulizer can overcome the barriers of nebulizing suspensions, generating a large potential market in the future.

HCmed informed that it was officially invited to set up a research and development center along with a production facility in order to tapper into the market and fulfill the needs of patients by introducing its device. The facility will be located at the core center of Wuxi City, where the interaction with universities and other research talents will create more opportunities in the life science park that counts with AstraZeneca as a founding partner. After all facilities are well-set, HCmed will be able to demonstrate the reliability and efficacy of its products and services through a world-class platform, thus accelerating its expansion in China and the global market.

Founded in 2014, HCmed Innovations Co., Ltd. completed the development of its first-generation portable mesh nebulizers in less than 5 years. Since 2017, its medical device has successfully received several regulatory approvals, such as European CE, Taiwan TFDA, Brazilian Anvisa, and Indonesian Badan POM. HCmed has also collaborated with one of the world's top ten pharmaceutical companies with its mesh nebulizer in Brazil, which was officially launched in May 2019. In the future, HCmed will build up its manufacturing facility in Wuxi International Life Science Innovation Park to cooperatively expand in China's large healthcare market. 
 

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