Abbott cardiac moves, investments to boost Healthy China 2030

Chicago-headquartered health technologies firm Abbott said it will expand coverage and resources in training programs in China, as well as support Chinese doctors' clinical research, as it steps up efforts to fulfill its local commitments to achieve the goal of Healthy China 2030.

Through increasing resources, the leader in cardiovascular treatment industry aims at improving the sector's diagnosis and treatment level and strengthening primary care in China, in order to better serve Chinese cardiovascular patients, said the company's senior executives.

William Yu, deputy vice-president of Abbott Cardiac Rhythm Management, Asia Pacific, said: "China is one of the largest markets for cardiovascular disease. The demands from patients to be treated are huge, just as the demands from doctors to get trained. This is why we are constantly expanding our investment in China."

He noted that the company will continue to bring international advanced technologies to China, making the country's medical technology level in line with the international standard.

In the meantime, its investment into clinical research will help Chinese doctors complete their projects in the cardiovascular sector, and benefit Chinese patients in the long term.

Currently, Abbott owns two training centers in China. The Abbott Medical Advanced Technology Center in Beijing provides doctors with first-class cardiological learning experiences and practice opportunities. Until now, nearly 10,000 domestic and foreign doctors have received training at the center.

The Crossroads-Abbott Academic Center in Shanghai, meanwhile, has been continuously providing interventional treatment training for physicians from different regions in China, making medical treatment and standardized treatment and care more accessible to patients in remote areas.

This year, Abbott and the Atrial Fibrillation Institute (which was formed by the Cardiac Electrophysiology and Pacing Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, and the Atrial Fibrillation Center Headquarters) have hosted a series of specialized training courses for young doctors, to study standardized atrial fibrillation treatment. The course was conducted across 43 national Atrial Fibrillation Demonstration Centers in China.

"Abbott attaches great importance to the transmission of technology and knowledge. Through talent development, communication, and collaboration, we promote standardized treatment, improve the expertise of physicians in implanting and treatment, share advanced healthcare concepts and patient management knowledge, and make high-quality medical resources accessible in more areas," Yu said.

Agreed Paul Tan, deputy vice-president of Abbott Vascular, Asia Pacific. "We have been actively cooperating with the Chinese government's work priorities over the past few years, such as 'patients with acute myocardial infarctions should receive timely treatment in local hospital', and we are also striving to expand the coverage of our advanced technologies."

In July, the State Council, China's Cabinet, issued a guideline on the implementation of the Healthy China Action plan, which listed the practice of cardiovascular diseases prevention and treatment as one of the special actions, and clarified that the goal is to decrease the mortality rate of cardiovascular diseases to 209.7 out of 100,000 or less in 2022, and 190.7 out of 100,000 or lower in 2030.

The Report on Cardiovascular Diseases in China 2018, released by the National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, showed that last year, the cardiovascular mortality rate in China topped all the causes of death including cancer and other diseases, accounting for more than 40 percent of the deaths of Chinese residents. Its prevalence and mortality were still rising.

There were about 290 million patients with cardiovascular diseases in China, including 13 million with stroke, 11 million with coronary heart disease, 5 million with pulmonary heart disease, 4.5 million with heart failure, 2 million with rheumatic heart disease, and 245 million with hypertension, according to the report.

Liu Jian, chief physician of the Heart Center at Peking University People's Hospital, noted that until today, there are still nearly 50 percent of hypertensive patients who do not know that they are sick, and there are many misconceptions about cardiovascular diseases out there.

"Developing a good understanding of the diseases and achieving early prevention and treatment are the most important things for the public," he said.

Huge market demand rapidly expanded the market scale. Simply by speaking of the vascular intervention market - it is a subcategory under cardiovascular treatment - the market scale surged by 25.08 percent year-on-year to 38.9 billion yuan ($5.5 billion) in 2018, according to data from the Medical Device Research Institute.

The percutaneous coronary intervention or PCI heart stent sector, which belongs to vascular intervention, had a market scale of 14.3 billion yuan in 2018, and the figure is estimated to surpass 22 billion yuan by 2023, according to research findings from the Shenzhen-based Qianzhan Industry Research Institute.

In the future, the company will continue to address the unmet needs in China's cardiovascular sector and help achieve the goal of Healthy China 2030, Abbott said.