At the recently concluded 65th Assembly of the Member States of WIPO, Healinno Tech, a Chinese healthcare company, was given the WIPO Global Award for its long-term commitment to promoting innovation.

The awards were launched by the World Intellectual Property Organization in 2022 and have been dedicated to rewarding innovative, creative individuals and smaller companies using intellectual property (IP) for business success.

As one of the nine winners worldwide, Healinno Tech focuses on developing intelligent image-guided waterjet surgical robots, as well as leveraging them to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).

Shi Yilun, founder and CEO of the company, said Healinno Tech is the only Chinese company to win the awards.

Shi said over the past few years, the company has actively utilized cutting-edge technologies to empower the development of healthcare industry, and the robust IP strategy has played a significant role in driving the company’s sustainable growth.

Marcelo Di Pietro, Director WIPO Awards, said the awards highly recognize the contributions of small and medium-sized enterprises like Healinno Tech to promoting innovation and advancing economic growth.

"We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Healinno Tech... and eagerly anticipate their continued contributions to the healthcare industry," he said.

According to Healinno Tech, 94 million BPH patients worldwide are expected to require surgery in the next decade, including 25 million in China.

However, only 500,000 BPH surgeries are currently performed in China each year, which means there still exists a significant unmet demand.

Against such a backdrop, the company said it is well poised to meet the demand in the sector and will step up efforts to provide high-quality and affordable treatments for more patients across the world.