Heart stent is called one of the greatest inventions in contemporary cardiology, and tens of millions of heart patients around the world have been reborn. However, at the beginning of the 21st century, imported metal coronary stents monopolized the market, and the high price discouraged many patients.
Ge Junbo believes that doctors have the responsibility and obligation to save some money for patients so that they can get effective treatment. In order to enable most patients with coronary heart disease to afford stents, in 2000, Ge Junbo and his team began to study domestic cardiac stents with independent intellectual property rights.
In December 2005, the first generation of drug-eluting stents in China was successfully developed. Its appearance broke the monopoly of imported stents, greatly reduced the price of stents, and enabled more than 100,000 patients to afford stents every year, saving patients and the country about 1.2 billion yuan in medical expenses.
This success didn’t stop Ge Junbo’s team. In order to develop a completely absorbable stent, Ge Junbo’s team spent eight years concentrating on research, and finally found that a biomaterial of polylactic acid has the possibility of being made into a coronary stent.
In May 2013, Ge Junbo team submitted the test results to china food and drug administration and began to apply for clinical research.
On September 7th, 2013, the first fully bioabsorbable stent in China was successfully implanted in a patient.
In May, 2015, Ge Junbo was invited to give a report at an international conference on innovative stents, which was a strong international voice of the new stents with independent intellectual property rights in China. The birth of completely bioabsorbable stents enhanced China’s international competitiveness in this industry, and also made China’s medical device products develop from "Made in China" to "Made in China".
On March 4, 2020, the domestic bioabsorbable heart stent was officially approved for marketing.
Academician Ge Junbo said: "We have met the best time, which allows each of our researchers to show their talents and turn their ideals into reality."
In this programme, Ge Junbo, academician of China Academy of Sciences and director of the Department of Cardiology, Zhongshan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, will tell you about past lives, a domestic heart stent.
The second episode of the fourth chapter "Medical Care in Great Countries" of "Medical Care to the Party" was broadcast on CCTV-12 Lifeline at 12: 00 on August 17th, and was jointly released by Learning Powerful Countries, communist party Net, CCTV Video, CCTV, CCTV Video, China IP TV, Healthy China and Health News. Please watch.