Recently, the first surgery with SpaceOAR Hydrogel in China was successfully completed at the Boao Lecheng Pilot Zone. The real-world data research policy of the Lecheng Pilot Zone is expected to expedite its entry into the Chinese market and fill the technical gap in the field of prostate cancer radiotherapy protection in China.

SpaceOAR Hydrogel is an absorbable and injectable material that temporarily creates space between the rectum and prostate in patients undergoing radiation therapy for prostate cancer, so as to reduce radiation damage and significantly improve patient’s life quality after radiotherapy. It has been available in the United States, the European Union and other countries and regions, and applied to the radiotherapy of more than 100,000 patients worldwide. In 2021, as a clinical urgently needed innovative medical product, it was introduced into the Lecheng Pilot Zone for clinical studies and started its road of entering the Chinese market.

“The hydrogel will be absorbed after three months, which has little impact on the patients’ health and reduces the damage of radiotherapy,” said Hao Hailong, chief physician of Shanxi Provincial Cancer Hospital’s urology department.

Lecheng Becomes Channel for Global Innovative Medical Products into China

The Lecheng Pilot Zone has become a preferred channel for global innovative medicine and medical equipment to enter China. By the end of July this year, Lecheng had imported 257 imported first-in-class licensed drugs and devices, of which 9 had been approved for entering the Chinese market after clinical studies. Among them, Boao Yiling has introduced more than 70 licensed drugs and devices. As the first medical equipment enterprise partner of Lecheng in the field of real-world research, Boston Scientific is also the medical equipment enterprise with the largest number of products included in the second batch of trial products for real-world research.

Da Bo, vice president of Boston Scientific China, said, “We have preliminarily reached the 2.0 version of cooperation intention with Lecheng. In the future, many of our innovative products will be introduced to Lecheng.”

“We will expand the scope of medical product introductions with a focus on the treatment of tumors. We hope that those new innovative medical products can be quickly introduced into Lecheng and be available in China soon,” stated Ding Min, head of Yiling Hospital Management Group’s medical department.