Made in Asia
The greater Düsseldorf region is a popular business location for international corporations in the field of healthcare. And increasingly, Asian companies choose NRW’s capital for their European headquarters. VIVID introduces three of them:
Around 20,000 international companies have settled in NRW. Many of them come from China, Japan or Korea. Some of them are represented in the health sector, which is the current growth driver of the region and is conducting innovative research in many areas. According to NRW.invest medical technology has an international leading position in NRW: around 200 companies have a turnover of around one billion euros. Jointly responsible for this corporate culture is the involvement of the Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, which generates important impulses and synergy effects with businesses in the health sector, also those from Asian countries. VIVID presents three of them.
This is how a symbiosis of medicine and robotics works: The Japanese company Medicaroid manufactures surgical robots. It was founded in 2013 in Kobe by the pioneer in the area of industrial robotics technology, Kawasaki, and the medical technology enterprise Sysmex. Since 2020 Medicaroid’s European headquarters have been in Düsseldorf. “Our most important product is the surgical robot system Hinotori, which has been available in Japan since last August,” says Alexander Schwarz, head of Business Development at Medicaroid.
Hinotori supports surgeons during an operation: “Our system can operate in a minimally invasive way. The surgeon is sitting at a console and controls the instruments, which are attached to the patient. A 3D screen enables the surgeon to look inside the patient. The surgical instruments are then being moved simultaneously within the body,” explains Schwarz. However, Hinotori is not the only one of his kind. “The market leader in this area has already been on the market for 20 years. What sets us aside is that we are the only ones in the market who possess a background in industrial robots”. Although the development of Hinotori is not taking place in Europe, it is important to have headquarters for the distribution. “Düsseldorf has the largest Japanese community outside of Japan, Kawasaki Robotics has therefore has therefore been based in Neuss for a long time,” says Alexander Schwarz.
Next to Hinotori, Medicaroid has a further product on offer: an operating table which is attached to a robotic arm. “This table can be moved in all directions, it can transfer patients, push them onto their side or tilt them. No other company has ever had anything like this. It is currently being assessed for EU approval,” explains Schwarz. Medicaroid is convinced that robot-assisted surgery will revolutionise medicine.
”No other company has ever had anything like this. It is currently being assessed for EU approval”
The Hinotori surgical robot supports surgeons in their work and is controlled via a console. The surgeon simultaneously sees a 3D image of the inside of the patient's body.
The Korean company Seegene is writing one of the biggest success stories of the coronavirus pandemic with a completely different mission: it is on the trail of pathogens. The company is working in the area of molecular diagnostics and PCR tests, which are currently used numerous times a day throughout the world. Seegene was founded in Korea in 2000 and was listed at the Korean stock exchange in 2010. “By now we have a turnover of one billion dollar worldwide,” says Dr Lothar Kruska, Managing Director of Seegene Germany. Since its inception the company has been concentrating its efforts on PCR tests and they have developed tests for the detection of more than 180 pathogens - and that long before COVID-19. “This basically includes everything a person could possibly catch,” explains Dr Kruska.
In February 2020 Seegene developed the first CE-IVD certified 2019-nCov test. Usually this is a manual, time-consuming process. However, at Seegene this process was performed by software that utilises Artificial Intelligence. “This is the key. The AI made it possible to validate the tests within a month, to acquire the CE-certificate and to launch them on the market,” Lothar Kruska explains. And this has resulted in success: from 2019 to 2020 the Korean company’s turnover increased tenfold and now Seegene wants to grow within Germany, too: in the facilities of the Life Science Center in Bilk the company has planned to create a facility to develop tests and facilitate production for the European market. For this Dr Lothar Kruska regards Düsseldorf as the ideal location. “Düsseldorf has an international airport, close proximity to the university, the Life Science Center: we will require a lot of skilled personnel, from chemists to IT people. Düsseldorf is very well placed for all of this. The Korean community network is also of great importance to us,” says Lothar Kruska.
Ultrasound as a diagnostic aid - that is the profession of SonoScape, another company with Asian roots: It was founded in 2002 in Shenzhen, China. Since then, it has been engaged in the development of medical devices.“Then, at the end of 2018, we founded our own subsidiary in Düsseldorf,” says Thomas Lüppertz, Regional Sales Manager at SonoScape: “Our clients are doctors in private medical practices and hospitals.”
”Our devices can discover a tumour, classify it and draw conclusions from the results: a diagnostic help for the doctor”
The Seegene management team (from left to right): Dr. Jong-Yoon Chun, Founder and CEO of Seegene Inc, Mr. Sung-Zun Steven Park, Deputy Managing Director/Authorised Signatory Seegene Germany and Dr. Lothar Kruksa, Managing Director Seegene Germany.
SonoScape's P-60 ultrasound scanner uses artificial intelligence to help doctors with diagnosing as well as managing the scanner.
The core business revolves around ultra-sound devices and apparatuses for endoscopies such as gastrointestinal endoscopies. “Our products are a kind of fusion between coloscopy and ultra-sound. This ways one can look into the body of the patient through very small incisions - a key technology. ”And the Chinese devices from Shenzhen have a unique selling point: the ultra-sound devices use integrated AI in breast examinations. “Our devices can discover a tumour, classify it and draw conclusions from the results: a diagnostic help for the doctor,” explains Thomas Lüppertz. At the present, SonoScape is feeling the consequences of the pandemic: hospitals are allowing only a very limited number of visitors and the transport of goods is a big problem, too, as SonoScape’s devices are manufactured in China. “Air traffic is currently very limited. This is the reason for using container shipping - that, however, takes four weeks and they currently have little capacity.” SonoScape is looking forward to be able to use transport by plane again – at least they have found their ideal business location in Düsseldorf and its airport. Thomas Lüppertz says happily: “It also looks good for us in terms of logistics. Container ships travel all the way to Rotterdam, which is, quite literally, around the corner.” •
Words: Katja Vaders
Pictures: SonoScape Biomedical Corp. Shenzhen, Medicaroid, Seegene Germany GmbH