CGBIO Co., Ltd. (CEO Hyun-Seung Yoo), a company specializing in bio-regenerative medicine, said on the 24th that it had signed an export contract with Shanghai Sanyou Medical, a Chinese medical device company, for about KRW 100 billion worth of bone substitute “BONGROS” for 5 years.

Shanghai Sanyou Medical, listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, is one of China’s leading spine and trauma medical device companies established by Chinese employees who worked at Medtronic’s US and European headquarters, a global medical device company. It achieved sales of 560 million yuan (about KRW 105.4 billion) in 2021, and the average annual sales growth over the past five years has reached 31.5%.

BONGROS is a bone substitute composed of hydroxyapatite ceramic, which is crystallographically and chemically identical to the organic component of human bone. It has a pore structure (300 μm) that is an optimal condition for new bone and blood vessels to grow while chemically directly bonding with the surrounding bone tissue after implantation in the human body. Therefore, it is characterized in that it perfectly reproduces the cancerous bone structure of the human body.

In addition, BONGROS is used as a carrier for NOVOSIS, a bone substitute equipped with the protein that promotes bone formation (rhBMP-2), by rapidly differentiating stem cells in the human body into bone cells. In other words, NOVOSIS is a product developed as a next-generation bone substitute equipped with the protein that promotes bone formation into BONGROS, the first-generation bone substitute.

NOVOSIS is a bone substitute that can reduce the bone fusion period of spinal diseases and trauma patients by half compared to the previous one. It is a major global export item that has signed an export contract of KRW 600 billion worth with a promising Japanese pharmaceutical company in 2019.

According to CGBIO, this contract is designed to lay the groundwork to lead the Chinese orthopedic bone substitute market, which is worth about KRW 500 billion and is growing by 16% per year, through the launch of BONGROS, a NOVOSIS carrier, prior to the launch of NOVOSIS. Currently, NOVOSIS is in the process of applying for permission from China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) and aims to launch it in the Chinese market in 2024.

CEO Hyun-Seung Yu said, “The orthopedic bone substitute market in China is attractive enough to maintain a double-digit growth rate every year.” “CGBIO aims to become the No. 1 company in the Chinese medical device market while improving the quality of life of Chinese patients by launching an excellent bone substitute.”