a shanghai-produced heart stent has been implanted in a patient in africa for the first time as part of china's efforts to offer medical assistance to belt and road countries.
dr ge junbo, chief physician of zhongshan hospital's cardiac division and an academic at the chinese academy of sciences, implanted the firehawk® stent, developed by microport® in shanghai's zhangjiang high-tech park in pudong, into the artery of a coronary disease patient in ghana's capital, accra.
firehawk®, the world's first targeted-drug-delivery heart stent, features a groove to hold drugs targeting the artery wall. it uses only one-third the amount of drugs required by a traditional stent, the lowest amount among similar products in the world.
shanghai microport® donated a batch of such interventional cardiovascular products to the national cardiothoracic centre in korle bu where the surgery was performed.
the chinese medical team, led by dr ge and an expert team with microport®, also gave training courses to cardiovascular doctors in accra. francis agyekum, a ghanaian surgeon trained by chinese experts, assisted ge during the operation.
the shanghai-developed medical products from microport® has been promoted to over a dozen belt and road countries such as indonesia, pakistan, indonesia, philippines, thailand and kazakhstan.
"the first implantation in africa was a milestone for shanghai-produced medical and their introduction to africa," dr. lin yingqing, the senior vice president with international businesses of microport® said.
hong kong-listed microport® scientific corporation was established in shanghai in 1998. it has become a leading medical device company with business focusing on the innovation, manufacturing, and marketing of domestically manufactured medical devices globally.