Recently, the National Medical Products Administration approved the registration application of Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "United Imaging Healthcare") for its innovative X-ray computed tomography equipment .

It is understood that this product breaks through the barrier that traditional high-end CT cannot balance product coverage and temporal resolution, and promotes China's medical imaging equipment into a new stage of development.

01

The first in the country

For a long time, the high-end medical imaging equipment market has been monopolized by international giants such as GE Healthcare, Siemens, and Philips, while domestically produced equipment is mainly concentrated in the low-to-mid-end market . However, in recent years, with policy support and the trend of medical device companies continuously increasing their R&D investment, innovative medical device companies such as Wandong Medical, Neusoft Medical, and United Imaging Healthcare have continued to emerge, and more and more high-end products have been launched and approved.

newly approved uCT SiriuX X-ray computed tomography device is another major product from United Imaging Healthcare. It is the first CT scanner in China to adopt dual-source dual-wide-body detector technology , which can support coronary CT angiography and spectral imaging.

Compared to traditional high-end CT scanners, the uCT SiriuX overcomes several bottlenecks and breaks through some of the limitations of traditional products. It is understood that this product boasts three advantages : a 16cm full organ volume coverage , the industry's highest 8ms temporal resolution , and a 470mm ultra-large dual-source imaging field of view . Based on these advantages, the uCT SiriuX has achieved several groundbreaking breakthroughs in the high-end CT field.

According to data from Yaozhi Medical Devices, United Imaging Healthcare currently has 26 products on the market in China (only products listed by Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare Co., Ltd. are shown, and products undergoing renewal registration are excluded). In terms of the trend of initial registration of its products in recent years, the number of registrations has shown a continuous upward trend from 2019 to 2024, with a slight decline only in 2025.

After years of development, United Imaging Healthcare's product pipeline has formed a complete product matrix, including PET-CT, PET-MR, MR, CT, DR, RT, and digital solutions. Among its products, positron emission tomography (PET) and X-ray computed tomography (XCT) systems are the most numerous, ranking first with eight models. Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that United Imaging Healthcare holds a leading market share in several domestic sectors, such as the XR market, and ranks first in the CT market .

Furthermore, United Imaging Healthcare continues to upgrade and develop several groundbreaking products that are the first of their kind globally and in China. In 2025, United Imaging Healthcare launched another blockbuster product, the uCT Ultima, a photon-counting spectral CT scanner. According to United Imaging Healthcare, this product is China's first photon-counting spectral CT scanner. In the MR field, United Imaging Healthcare possesses the uMR Jupiter 5T , currently the only whole-body clinical ultra-high field MRI scanner in the world to simultaneously hold NMPA, FDA, and CE approvals . China is continuously achieving significant breakthroughs in the field of high-end medical imaging.

02

Domestic brands are rising rapidly.

In recent years, numerous policies issued by China have become a significant driving force for the continuous development of domestically produced medical imaging equipment. In 2021, ten departments, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, jointly issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Medical Equipment Industry ," which clearly proposed the development of a new generation of medical imaging equipment and the promotion of intelligent, remote, miniaturized, rapid, precise, multimodal, and integrated diagnostic and therapeutic development. It also proposed that by 2035, the research, development, manufacturing, and application of medical equipment will reach world-class levels.

In August 2023, the State Council Executive Meeting reviewed and approved the "Action Plan for High-Quality Development of the Medical Equipment Industry (2023-2025) ," which emphasizes the promotion and application of domestically produced medical equipment and promotes its continuous iteration and upgrading.

On the other hand, the continuous expansion of the market has also attracted domestic medical device companies to continuously invest in it. According to public data, in 2024, the market size of medical imaging equipment in China reached 56.29 billion yuan , of which CT equipment accounted for a large proportion. However, from the perspective of the overall market, although domestic medical imaging equipment has grown rapidly in recent years, most of it is deployed in the low-to-mid-end market, with relatively few products in the high-end field.

Based on this, although foreign brands still dominate the high-end medical imaging field in China, the overall market is undergoing structural changes. According to publicly available data from the first half of 2025, Mindray Medical ranked first in China's ultrasound equipment market with a share of 25.49% , surpassing the previous two giants—Philips (21.09%) and GE Healthcare (19.93%).

Meanwhile, domestic brands are rapidly emerging in various high-end sectors. Besides United Imaging Healthcare's significant achievements, companies like Neusoft Medical and Wandong Medical have also made notable progress. Notably, in August 2025, Neusoft Medical's photon-counting CT scanner, NeuViz P10, received approval from the National Medical Products Administration for market launch. This product is the world's first 8cm wide-body photon-counting CT scanner . Furthermore, the advent of these two photon-counting CT scanners from Neusoft Medical and United Imaging Healthcare has completely broken the absolute monopoly of imports in this field.

It's worth noting that, with policy guidance, technological advancements, and changes in market demand, domestically produced medical imaging equipment is gradually moving from a follower phase to a new stage of keeping pace and even leading in some areas. The industry as a whole will also shift towards high-end and independent technology, and digital and intelligent applications. Among these, AI, as one of the hottest new technologies in recent years, will become a new engine driving industry development .

03

Conclusion

The official approval of United Imaging Healthcare signifies a major technological breakthrough for domestically produced high-end medical equipment in the field of ultra-high-end CT, and propels China's medical imaging field into a new development cycle.