Precision radiotherapy enterprise "Yangqi Yixin" has obtained tens of millions of yuan in Pre-A round financing, and its core product is expected to obtain the certificate within this year. | 36Kr Exclusive

36Kr has learned that recently, the precision nuclear medical enterprise "Yangqi Yixin" has completed a Pre-A round of financing of several million yuan. This round of financing is led by Anfeng Venture Capital, and the raised funds will be mainly used for the marketing of approved products, the research and development and approval of new products, and the expansion of the pet radiotherapy market.

Yangqi Yixin was established in 2021 and focuses on the development of nuclear medical and tumor radiotherapy products. The company's founding team is composed of experts in the fields of nuclear medicine, nuclear physics, and artificial intelligence from Stanford, Alibaba, and other domestic and foreign institutions.

For a long time, radiotherapy treatment has problems such as extensive intraoperative treatment plans, insufficient process accuracy, and overly long treatment courses. To this end, Yangqi Yixin enables precise radiotherapy through its independently developed optical navigation technology ((Reported by 36Kr)). The company's existing product portfolio includes the optical body surface monitoring product "Qishi", the low-dose CT enhancement product "Qingying", and the SRT low-energy superficial radiotherapy equipment, etc.

Take the core product "Qishi" as an example: In the field of radiotherapy, real-time image-guided technology is a key factor in improving accuracy and efficiency. And "Qishi" adopts a "non-invasive and radiation-free image-guided technology", which can obtain the patient's position in real time through three-dimensional body surface imaging and perform real-time monitoring and modeling of the patient's body surface with an accuracy of within 0.2mm.

Schematic of the "Qishi" product

Tian Yuan, the co-founder of Yangqi Yixin, explains that this product can assist doctors in real-time judgment of the treatment effect according to the changes in the body position and posture of different patients during the treatment process, thereby achieving precise monitoring during the treatment process. In addition, through high-precision real-time six-degree-of-freedom registration, "Qishi" can correct the positioning error and accurately guide the entire radiotherapy process.

Currently, the clinical scenarios of tumor treatment that "Qishi" can be applied to include deep inspiration breath hold (DIBH) for breast cancer, stereotactic radiotherapy (SRS) for brain tumors, liver cancer, cervical cancer, prostate cancer, etc. The company expects that this product will be approved in China in 2024; the relevant registration and declaration overseas is also in progress simultaneously.

It is also reported that after going through the initial establishment stage, the product positioning of Yangqi Yixin has gradually "extended from navigation to the terminal, and started to layout the manufacturing of the entire radiotherapy machine". In this process, the company chose the superficial radiotherapy equipment as the development direction.

To put it simply, the superficial radiotherapy equipment is a product that uses low-energy X-rays to perform radiotherapy on the skin surface or shallow tissues. Compared with traditional large radiotherapy equipment, the superficial radiotherapy equipment has the characteristics of "low ray energy and better safety", and the relevant application scenarios can be expanded to fields such as cesarean section, medical cosmetology, and burn department.

In terms of indication selection, this treatment method can be applied not only to the tumor field such as non-melanoma skin tumors, but also to the treatment of various skin diseases, such as skin hemangioma, neurodermatitis, hypertrophic scar, and local pruritus.

"At present, our first-generation prototype has been developed, and the relevant projects are in the verification and confirmation stage. The clinical pre-experiment has been completed, and the tumor suppression effect is obvious."

Schematic of the superficial radiotherapy equipment

In addition, it is worth mentioning that in the process of laying out the research of superficial radiotherapy equipment, Yangqi Yixin gradually discovered the application potential of this type of technology in the field of pet medical treatment. Tian Yuan explains that animals also face the problems of tumors or skin diseases, but the traditional laser and thermal ablation therapies have limited efficacy and obvious pain, and often need to be performed under anesthesia. And anesthesia has the problems of high cost and high risk.

In contrast, the application of superficial radiotherapy equipment can not only effectively treat tumors, but also "achieve non-invasive and painless" in the treatment of skin diseases.

"Our pet version of the superficial radiotherapy equipment not only has the ability to treat skin diseases, but also adds the intraoperative radiotherapy function, which can perform radiotherapy simultaneously during the surgical process. In addition, the equipment is more in line with the characteristics of animals in terms of appearance design and function, equipped with a professional pet treatment head, and adds treatment methods such as natural lumens." Tian Yuan said.

In addition, in terms of commercialization, with the successive approval of core products such as "Qishi", Yangqi Yixin expects to "gradually achieve large-scale sales after 2025". The next stage will focus on the layout of cooperation with top hospitals, the expansion of agents, and the cooperation with domestic and foreign radiotherapy equipment manufacturers. In the field of pet medical treatment, the company has reached cooperation with some top pet hospitals to explore the business of miniaturized pet radiotherapy.

Investor's View:

Wu Xiaoge, the partner of Anfeng Private Equity, said: "Yangqi Yixin focuses on the field of nuclear medicine and precise radiotherapy, has a deep technical accumulation in the field of nuclear medicine, and has a rich product pipeline reserve. The core team is energetic and highly innovative, and has a strong business insight in the clinical aspect. Recently, the company's completely independently developed core product is about to be approved for the first Class III medical device certificate, which means that the company's business has officially entered the commercialization stage. We firmly believe that the nuclear medicine and precise radiotherapy track has huge commercial potential, and we also hope that the Yangqi Yixin team can bring greater benefits to patients through continuous product innovation."