Broncus Medical has completed surgeries on the first group of patients using its InterVapor(including InterVapor Generator and InterVapor Catheter, the “InterVapor®”), after it was approved for marketing in China. This marked the official entry of InterVapor® into the clinical commercialization phase in China and is expected to benefit patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (“COPD”). The surgeries were completed by teams of professionals led by Professor Long Fa of the Department of Respiratory, Shenzhen Hospital, University of Chinese Academy of Science; and Professor Ouyang Haifeng of the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Chest Hospital, Xi’an International Medical Center Hospital, respectively.
The Company’s self-developed InterVapor® was granted approval by the National Medical Products Administration of China (the “NMPA”) in March 2022. This is the first NMPA-approved thermal vapor energy ablation systems in China and in the world for the treatment of COPD. InterVapor® is a minimally invasive interventional lung volume reduction product that can achieve sequential staged treatment by targeting the lung segments, thereby leading to a new era of interventional pulmonary in China. The Company has obtained an exclusive patent for the use of thermal vapor for pulmonary treatments with a state-of-the-art technology.
During the course of the surgeries, InterVapor® delivered thermal vapor bronchoscopically to the targeted lung segment and transmitted energy through air convection, which overcomes the traditional obstacles of energy transmission due to the high air content in the lungs, and hence treating severely diseased lung segments. This method of treatment significantly improves the quality of life and lung function of patients and their exercise tolerance while preserving more healthy lung tissues.
COPD is a common chronic respiratory disease and the world’s third leading cause of death. According to Frost Sullivan, in 2021, there were approximately 226 million COPD patients worldwide, and at least 106 million of COPD patients in China, and the 5-year survival rate of advanced COPD patients is less than 20%. Currently, the treatment strategy of COPD is still based on drug treatment, which can delay the disease progression to a certain extent, but for severe and acutely severe patients, the effect of drug treatment is very limited