Rex: with FDA and CE certification, the self balancing exoskeleton rehabilitation robot is about to enter the Chinese market

Publisher:Maxhealth  DATE:2022/6/6

In 2020, Meian pharmaceutical acquired Rex bionics, the world's first tier exoskeleton robot enterprise, and reorganized it into Wuxi Meian Rex medical robot Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Meian Rex).

Statistics show that Meian Rex is a medical robot enterprise focusing on the field of rehabilitation. It is committed to helping patients complete rehabilitation treatment, restore physiological functions, restart daily life and improve the quality of life.

Miao Fengdong, CEO of Meian Rex, said: "we mainly develop hard technologies in the field of rehabilitation (especially in the field of neural rehabilitation), such as rehabilitation robots, rehabilitation laser products, AI rehabilitation tools, etc. we hope to solve the underlying pain points in rehabilitation treatment through hard core technology research and development."

At present, Meian Rex has launched a self balancing exoskeleton robot, which has been certified by EU CE and US FDA, and has served patients with nervous system diseases overseas. At the same time, Meian Rex is laying out other product lines, such as the bedside rehabilitation robot to assist limb rehabilitation, the walking rehabilitation robot to help patients walk, and the laser rehabilitation treatment robot to repair patients' limb soft tissue injuries. Meian Rex predicts that the prototypes of these three products will be developed within this year and clinical registration will begin in 2023

As an exoskeleton rehabilitation robot enterprise that has been sold overseas, what is Rex's view on the neural rehabilitation market? How will it enter the Chinese market? What is its product layout strategy?

Exoskeleton rehabilitation robot is urgently needed in the market

Neurological rehabilitation is mainly related to stroke, brain injury, spinal cord injury and other neurological diseases.

Taking stroke as an example, China stroke report 2019 (English version) shows that the disability rate of stroke in China is as high as 75%, that is, 75% of stroke patients in China have different degrees of disability.。

For European and American developed countries with mature rehabilitation system, the disability rate of stroke is only 30%. Through data comparison, we can see that a mature rehabilitation system and perfect rehabilitation treatment have great value in improving the quality of life of stroke patients.。

At present, there are about 15million stroke patients living with disease in China, but very few patients receive rehabilitation treatment. This has also led to the low quality of life of stroke patients in China, of which about 17% are long-term bedridden. At the same time, such patients also need special care, resulting in greater family economic burden and social economic burden.。

Why is the rehabilitation treatment penetration rate of stroke patients in China very low?

"There are three major factors that limit the rehabilitation of stroke patients," Miao said

First, there is a serious shortage of rehabilitation professionals in China. Taking stroke as an example, relevant patients need 400000 rehabilitation specialists, but there are only 20000 rehabilitation specialists in China. In addition, a patient usually needs a number of rehabilitation specialists to assist in treatment, which makes the talent gap larger.

Second, there is a serious shortage of rehabilitation institutions and equipment. In the United States, there are about 30000 rehabilitation institutions, while there are only about 3000 rehabilitation institutions in China. At the same time, compared with foreign countries, the rehabilitation treatment in China mainly depends on the manual completion of rehabilitation workers, lacking a reliable and powerful rehabilitation platform and equipment.

The picture is from the 2019 Research Report on the development potential of rehabilitation industry

Third, the rehabilitation skills are insufficient. At present, the average educational background of domestic rehabilitators is low, and their rehabilitation skills are uneven, resulting in some differences in the effect of rehabilitation treatment.

Based on the above three pain points, the penetration rate of rehabilitation treatment in China is generally low. However, rehabilitation therapy can make 90% of stroke patients resume walking and self-care life, and 30% of patients resume light work; Without rehabilitation treatment, only 6% of them resumed walking and self-care, and 5% resumed light work.

It can be seen that rehabilitation treatment is of great value to patients. Therefore, safe and effective rehabilitation treatment solutions are urgently needed in the market.

In order to meet the urgent clinical needs, the exoskeleton rehabilitation robot came into being. Taking the exoskeleton rehabilitation robot independently developed by Meian Rex as an example, the robot can independently carry patients to complete rehabilitation training without the physical burden of therapists, and only one rehabilitation specialist is required to control the training process; It can carry out acute, multi project and multi-level rehabilitation training.

out of the ordinary, 

Rex robot realizes self balancing

Like American Rex, many other entrepreneurial teams around the world have also seen opportunities in the exoskeleton rehabilitation robot market.

It is reported that the exoskeleton rehabilitation robot developed by Meian Rex was approved by CE and FDA in 2016. It is one of the first batch of commercial exoskeleton rehabilitation robots in the world.

However, at present, the exoskeleton rehabilitation robots of many enterprises in the world have been approved. Compared with other products on the market, what are the differentiation advantages of Rex robot?

Miao Fengdong said: "Unlike other products on the market, Rex robot is a self balancing multi-functional exoskeleton robot. Relying on mechanical systems and intelligent algorithms, the robot can independently support the rehabilitation movement of patients without external equipment such as suspension, frame and crutches. The exoskeleton robot also adopts bionic engineering design, and the movement mode is more in line with the ergonomic trajectory, so that patients and rehabilitation practitioners can have a better experience in the use process 。 "

At the same time, the exoskeleton rehabilitation robot designed by Meian Rex uses its self-developed motor, which has the characteristics of small volume and large torque, and can achieve an efficiency of more than 95%.

In addition, through algorithmic sensing, control system and other technologies, Meian Rex adds multi action control, multi-directional control, precision action control and other functions to the exoskeleton rehabilitation robot. Among them, algorithmic sensing technology realizes intelligent and accurate control through fuzzy PID, and senses the state of the machine and the patient as a whole through dozens of sensors to perform complex operations and action control.

Based on this, the exoskeleton rehabilitation robot of Meian Rex can carry patients to perform dozens of movements and posture training to achieve better rehabilitation treatment.

In clinical research, a patient with early stroke had a right upper and lower limb muscle strength of grade 0. He used Rex robot for training twice a day. After 26 days, he walked with the help of his arm, 2-3 months earlier than expected; A spinal cord injury patient with paraplegia rating of C. after one month of rehabilitation training through Rex robot, the clinician evaluated that the trunk control ability was significantly enhanced, the postural hypotension was improved, the neuronal intestinal dysfunction was significantly improved, and the patient better entered the autonomous daily life.

Through the large-scale use of Rex robot, China is likely to reduce the disability rate of stroke. However, how will Meian Rex promote its exoskeleton rehabilitation robot?

According to Meian Rex, the rehabilitation industry is in a tuyere and is ushering in a policy dividend period. For example, in 2021, the National Health Commission and other eight departments jointly issued the notice on accelerating the development of rehabilitation medical work, which pointed out that: further strengthen the construction of rehabilitation medical service system and accelerate the high-quality development of rehabilitation medical services.

Miao Fengdong said: "on the one hand, Meian Rex will seize the development opportunity to promote the robot through sales and leasing, and promote the robot with the help of the sales channel and commercialization team of the parent company Meian pharmaceutical. On the other hand, Meian Rex will promote the robot with the help of the clinical effect of the product and its benefits to all subjects."

For example, for rehabilitation institutions, if they choose to rent, they can develop revenue sources and provide patients with a more efficient rehabilitation treatment method without too much cost. If the purchase method is selected, the cost can be recovered in about one year, and the subsequent income is the profit of the organization.

For doctors and patients, the rehabilitation division does not need to expend physical strength, just need to pay attention to the rehabilitation training program, and the efficiency is greatly improved; Patients receive more accurate rehabilitation treatment to improve clinical effect.

For the society, stroke patients after rehabilitation treatment will significantly reduce the disability rate and reduce the cost of care. Therefore, the exoskeleton rehabilitation robot is a product with high cost performance in health economics, which should be widely promoted to reduce social costs.

Based on the above advantages, we hope that the exoskeleton rehabilitation robot of American Rex can be approved for marketing in China as soon as possible and widely used in domestic patients.

Finally, Miao Fengdong said: "Meian Rex plans to carry out a new round of financing of 80million yuan, which is mainly used for the product registration, large-scale production and R & D of other innovative products of Rex robot.