Healthcare Industry Insights: AI Helps Significantly Reduce Costs, Boosting Medical Device Registration Efficiency by Over 70% — Findings from Hunan’s New Industrialization Survey

Biomedicine and medical devices are becoming major battlegrounds in global technological competition.
Hunan is emerging as a strong player, with 67,000+ enterprises in the sector and total industry revenue reaching 338.75 billion RMB in 2024. Four major industrial clusters have been established, and the Changsha–Zhuzhou–Xiangtan (Chang-Zhu-Tan) city cluster is tasked with building a demonstration zone for new quality productivity.

In TCM, Hunan shows significant strength:
30 Chinese patent medicines—including Fuke Qianjin capsules and Simotang—achieved over 100 million RMB in annual sales.
In medical devices, the province surpassed 10,000 Class II and III medical device registrations by 2025.

Red Star Capital Bureau followed the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s “New Industrialization Media Survey” into Hunan to observe how the province is accelerating in biomedicine and medical devices.

1. Enterprise Innovation: Digital Transformation and Breakthrough Technologies

Hunan is a major TCM province. Qianjin Pharmaceutical (600479.SH), producer of the well-known Fuke Qianjin tablets, is one of the local industry leaders.

Over the past two years, Qianjin has built an integrated digital platform covering R&D, production, supply chain, and quality control, achieving:

• 38% reduction in procurement costs
• Tripled chemical drug output without increasing manpower
• Average generic drug R&D cost reduced from 12.468 million to 5.867 million RMB
• Monthly production planning shortened from 3 days to under 30 minutes

AI also accelerates drug screening and improves batch consistency.

High-End Device Innovation at Huaxin Medical

At Huaxin Medical, the team witnessed the world’s first automated riveting snake-bone production line.

• Precision at micron level
• Production efficiency ×10
• 16,000㎡ automated facility with 400,000 annual capacity

The company also produces affordable disposable electronic endoscopes priced at:

• <100,000 RMB for “1 host + 10 scopes”
• Long-term goal: reduce per-scope cost from “10,000 RMB-level” to “1,000 RMB-level”

To date, Huaxin has:

• 220+ global registrations
• 1,289 IP rights
• 549 invention patents

2. Industrial Park Empowerment: Professional Incubation + Faster Approval

Hunan Medical Device Industrial Park, founded in 2019, has quickly become an industry growth engine:

• Core area output grew to 3.046 billion RMB in 2024
• Total park output reached 13 billion RMB
• 290+ enterprises settled in
• 95% migrated from developed medical device regions

Key Breakthrough: Approval Efficiency

Instead of subsidies, the park focuses on “approval capacity”, solving the biggest pain point—medical device registration.

In 2024, Hunan launched the first provincial-level medical device review subcenter in Xiangtan.

• 8 approval and 2 inspection authorities delegated
• Registration shortened from 100 working days to just 20+ days
• Class II devices can launch 1–2 years faster than in other provinces

The park now holds nearly 1,000 Class II & III certificates, forming advantages in minimally invasive surgery and medical aesthetics.