Hello everyone, welcome to this episode.

Since this year, in the face of some unexpected changes in the international and domestic environment, various departments across China have continued to make efforts to stabilize foreign investment, helping enterprises to solve specific problems such as logistics and transportation for the resumption of production. In order to further reflect the current situation of the development of foreign-funded enterprises in China, show a more open Chinese market, and provide opportunities for the development of foreign-funded enterprises. The program of People's Meeting Room of People's Daily Online launched "Foreign funded enterprises talk about confidence", and invited senior executives of foreign funded enterprises to the interview room of People's Daily Online to show the development status of foreign funded enterprises in China, share opportunities in the world, empower each other, and enhance the global competitiveness of China's industry. The guest in our interview is Dr. Zhang Xiao, the senior vice president of Varian Healthcare and president of Greater China. Let's welcome Dr. Zhang Xiao together.

Hello, everyone.

Welcome President Zhang. First of all, we all know that in the opinion on implementing the Healthy China Action, cancer prevention and control action is proposed. By 2030, the overall five-year survival rate of cancer will not be less than 46.6%. So, would you please share what efforts Varian has made to help prevent and treat cancer and implement the Healthy China Action?

Thank you for your question. Our government has always put people's health at the strategic development position. Varian very much agrees with and supports it. He also hopes to work with all colleagues in the medical community to help establish a cancer prevention and control treatment system in China and actively contribute to the realization of the goal of healthy China 2030.

Cancer is a common disease with high incidence in China. At present, from the perspective of human life course, it is also a disease that cannot be crossed. According to the latest data, our country has more than 4.5 million new cancer patients a year. According to the standards of the World Health Organization, 50% of cancer patients should use radiotherapy during the treatment process. But so far, the accessibility of radiotherapy is still limited. Therefore, it is our important task to actively and effectively popularize radiotherapy according to the actual situation and current situation in China. You just mentioned the five-year survival rate. Improving the five-year survival rate is not only a question of which treatment method to use, but also a comprehensive question of the whole cancer prevention and control system. For example, in our country, the common characteristics of cancer include: first, it was discovered relatively late; Second, the rate of missed diagnosis is relatively high; Third, the choice of treatment is relatively simple; Fourth, the distribution of medical resources and service capacity is uneven. For various reasons, our current five-year survival rate is far from that of developed countries. Therefore, the five-year survival rate of 46.6%, to a large extent, is to hope that our country's primary medical service level can catch up with the current urban medical system. Looking only at the medical level of the city, the five-year survival rate of cancer has basically reached the goal of 2030, but there is still a big gap at the grass-roots level. This is also one of the most important reasons for strengthening the basic level and ensuring the basic work. Therefore, in this regard, Varian has made use of the strong cooperation with Siemens Medical to actively explore the establishment of a system for cancer patients in China from early screening and early diagnosis to multidisciplinary consultation, accurate diagnosis, selection of treatment methods, as well as management and rehabilitation from the technical level, and at the same time from the reality of China and the layout of health care, It includes the whole system of prediction and monitoring whether cancer patients relapse or not. At the same time, according to the different levels of economic development, a two-level cancer prevention and control system is established. The first level is to establish a universal cancer prevention and control system based on public health; The other level is to establish a more accurate and personalized prevention and control system for those patients who can afford to pay according to the needs of individualization, and form a nationwide cancer prevention and control system by combining the two. Therefore, there is a long way to go.

Thank you for your sharing. The Expo is an important window for sharing China's development regions. I also learned that Varian has participated in the Expo for the fifth consecutive year. What benefits do you think the Fair will bring to the development of foreign enterprises in China? In addition, would you please introduce the innovation of the exhibition area in Varian compared with the previous one?

The Expo has always been the first place to launch our new products worldwide, the first place to put our new technologies on the ground, and the first place to promote our new concepts, concepts and service systems. Therefore, the spillover effect of continuous participation in the Expo in the past five years on Varian's business is huge. At the same time, it is also of great significance for Chinese patients to be able to connect with the world market in a timely manner and access the latest technology to diagnose and treat them.

In addition, the Expo is also an important way for us to promote world-class new concepts, methods and means of cancer prevention and treatment in medical management, national management and the general public. We believe that this is a good communication and interaction platform in cancer prevention and management system.

Therefore, this time we will participate in the exhibition as always, and also with an innovative attitude. At our booth, you will see not only the new cancer treatment edge products, but also the whole life cycle management system that we first launched in China from prevention and control, diagnosis, treatment, and management to "tailor" the Chinese patients. Not only in terms of technology, but also in terms of care services, we will show our new ideas and new technologies, and let them be implemented, so as to effectively improve the quality of life and alleviate the pain for Chinese patients.

In this exhibition, we have the world's first anti-cancer product, specifically for brain metastasis. It is like an invisible radiosurgery scalpel, which can target dozens of cancerous lesions in the brain at one time. In our country, a large number of cancer patients' tumors eventually metastasize to the brain every year. Therefore, we use this new "one center multi target" technology HyperARC super arc knife to provide patients with the most simple, automated and efficient non-invasive treatment. No anesthesia, no surgery, no wound. The whole process takes 15 minutes, which we think is a good news for Chinese cancer patients.

In addition, our fast ring cutter is also a global synchronous debut. The aforementioned super arc knife is an effective treatment for brain tumors. The quick ring knife is a precise and rapid treatment for the whole body cancer, which is faster and easier to operate, while the whole equipment occupies less space. All kinds of innovations enable our radiotherapy to really keep pace with surgery, and because radiation is non-invasive, it is relatively more beneficial to the relief of pain and recovery of our patients. We hope that these two different invisible radiosurgery scalpels can be landed in China as soon as possible, and make some contributions to alleviating the pain of cancer patients.

In addition, we also have a product that is specially suitable for the treatment of cancer by cryoablation. We call it "CryoCare V-Probe". At present, it is the only cryoablation needle in the world that can be adjusted. Lower the temperature of liquid helium to 140 degrees below zero, or even lower. In this case, the toxicity of freezing can quickly freeze and "kill" cells in various parts of the tumor. At the same time, we can adjust the size of the ice hockey ball according to the cancer and various nearby organs, which is called conformal, to protect the surrounding normal cells. Such a simple and non-invasive means will greatly help the recovery of tumor patients, and the pain will be relatively reduced.

Finally, in this exhibition, we will also show the whole life cycle prevention and control management system that extends the whole treatment management scope for lung cancer and liver cancer. Cancer is a chronic disease. Its gestation period can be five to ten years. It is very important to find and track as soon as possible, and then conduct multidisciplinary diagnosis and comprehensive treatment. Finally, it can be managed through rehabilitation, and it is important to monitor patients who have relapsed as soon as possible. We believe that through this series of systems integrated with China's medical insurance system, commercial insurance and other private systems, we can help build a healthy China.

Thank you, Mr. Zhang. I'm looking forward to going to the Expo Exhibition Area to see the innovations you just shared.

Welcome the host to our booth.

With the expansion of China's medical device market and the increasing concentration, the localization trend of our multinational enterprises is also constantly strengthening. Could you please share with us how Varian Medical has done on the road of localization?

From the perspective of localization, Varian is a cancer treatment enterprise. At the same time, our business has now expanded to the entire cancer prevention and control system, so we are thinking about how to do localization around the entire ecology. Many of Varian's products are researched and produced in China. Scientific research must be developed in, for and with China.

From the perspective of scientific research and manufacturing, Varian's industrial chain is in China, rather than assembling our products in China. Through joint efforts and cooperation with more than 50 suppliers, we have helped our country's high-end medical industry chain develop to the world's advanced level under the condition of localization of scientific research and manufacturing.

At the same time, it is very important that people use the most advanced technology. Therefore, the localization of talents is an important link in the process of localization. Not only is the training center used to teach the use of machines, but also in order to solve the problem of uneven distribution of medical resources, Varian also donated 10 million yuan and the Cancer Foundation to carry out a training project for the establishment of grass-roots cancer centers, training more than 1000 presidents of grass-roots county-level hospitals and more than 2000 grass-roots medical service personnel. In addition, Varian donated software and hardware worth 100 million yuan to seven universities in China, establishing a world-class new education system, helping students access the most advanced technology and software, so that they can access the world's most advanced level in school. In 2021, together with the China Medical Equipment Association, we established the only training base for in-service tumor radiotherapy talents with accreditation in our country, which is called the radiotherapy research institute. It provides doctors, medical nurses and technicians with four levels of training. After the training, the Medical Equipment Association will give them certification and provide them with continuing education. All these are to solve the problem of talent deficiency in cancer treatment, especially radiotherapy, in China through localized education.

In addition, we have a clinical support system for how to quickly carry out the work after the training. Doctors and technicians help to carry out the first treatment hand in hand. There may be some differences between Varian and other medical technology systems. We not only have equipment and medical technology, but also have our own hospitals. There are more than a dozen tumor centers and more than 2000 employees in the world, including doctors and nurses. We hope that through direct clinical support, we can tailor the medical environment for China's localization and provide localized knowledge system services according to customer needs, whether in terms of treatment or management.

The last localization is to carry out research and development work based on the actual situation of new cancer patients and people living with cancer in China every year. The patient's life cycle management system just mentioned is a localized solution, which is completely based on the current situation of our country. Therefore, the localization content of Varian is very broad, not only equipment and scientific research, but also how to expand tools and technologies to ultimately benefit patients.

As you said, there are many contents of localization. In terms of scientific research and innovation, we need to achieve localization. President Zhang, could you please share what innovative research and development tailored to the Chinese market Varian has done?

Because the number of cancer patients in China is huge, all Chinese technologies, no matter how sophisticated, must adapt to this feature. It is not only high-end, accurate and automatic, but also needs AI empowerment and process. These ideas run through our scientific research work. For example, we first landed the Speed Ring Knife in China, and completed the scientific research and production process in China. That is to say, aiming at the situation in China, we can achieve large size, accurate, simple process, and fast, painless and non-invasive results. The previous "one heart multi target" super arc knife is also developed for the situation that there are a large number of brain metastasis cancer patients in China.

In addition, in addition to equipment, it is to use the system. China's medical resources are unevenly distributed, so our country has the concept of medical union, and regional centers and national centers are interconnected. This requires remote technology and cloud technology, so that medical resources can be transferred from the national center to the regional center, and the regional center can provide direct support at different levels to the municipal hospitals below. This is all tailored for our Chinese patients.

What exploration has Varian Medical carried out in the clinical practice of realizing the individual mode of cancer radiotherapy?

For example, at the Expo last year, we released a product "Ethos", which is adaptive. The cancer focus is changing every day, including during the treatment process. So, it is very important that the treatment means and treatment methods can change with its changes. In this case, our product is enabled by artificial intelligence and directly used in patient treatment. During each treatment, we re capture the cancer information and automatically adjust the treatment plan. Product implementation is not only localized in technology, but also in use process management. Therefore, we should cooperate with medical workers and hospitals to establish China specific process management.

President Zhang, we all know that medical enterprises, as enterprises with high scientific and technological content, are a source of ensuring their own development in scientific research innovation. What factors do you think are the key to the development of medical research innovation?

The development of medical technology innovation should take into account the ultimate benefits for patients. Therefore, in the process of use, we should comprehensively consider the entire ecological environment, not only our own scientific and technological advancement, but also the landing and use in the required market, so that we can truly meet the standards in quality, cost and popularity. Therefore, we need to closely integrate with the clinical environment.

Another important thing is that we must be multidisciplinary. We can't say that we do radiotherapy. Our scientific research and innovation is just about our own business. It is also important to converge with other clinical departments and multidisciplinary.

In addition, as I mentioned just now, we need to cooperate with local leading enterprises in the countries where we are located, so that we can complement and interact with each other and create an ecological environment. Treatment is never single, but through the joint efforts of various departments. Therefore, in the process of scientific research innovation, we must think about how to have a comprehensive real effectiveness for both upstream and downstream, and for patients, not just for a certain technology. In the process of creating, popularizing and developing projects, the first consideration in China is to be in China, for China and with Chinese enterprises; Second, it can be implemented in the clinical environment of China; Third, it must solve China's special problems, that is, the situation of more patients; Finally, like all medical technologies, accessibility and cost control must be considered.

Of course, whether someone uses it outside the whole scientific research system, that is, the talent training system just mentioned is also very important. With the development of scientific research, new technology must enable the medical community to have the ability and opportunity to accept it. Therefore, these are some comprehensive considerations.

President Zhang, we also know that Varian Medical has been committed to helping cancer prevention and treatment. Could you please share Varian's exploration and practice in improving the cancer prevention, treatment and service capabilities of China's primary medical institutions?

In this respect, we mentioned earlier. First, in terms of the goal of cancer prevention and control, the most important thing is how to improve the five-year survival rate of patients in grass-roots county hospitals. Around 2018, we began to work with the Cancer Foundation to build a training program for grassroots cancer centers. Through research, we felt that China's grassroots hospitals lacked knowledge of cancer treatment systematization. In this case, we conducted a large area of training. Through our work, 21 provinces and cities participated in the training, popularizing more than 1000 county hospital managers and more than 2000 medical personnel in grass-roots hospitals.

On the other hand, through the newly established Beijing Global Innovation Center, we began to expand our radiotherapy business. After joining hands with Siemens medical giants, we worked with some leading industry enterprises in our country to make new attempts for patients' life-cycle management. In addition, Varian has done a series of work for the popularization of cancer prevention in China. In the future, in view of the aging trend, he will also carry out more work in building a two-level prevention and control system of public health and precise personalized treatment.

President Zhang, you just mentioned the Varian Global Innovation Center that your company has actively invested in. Could you introduce it? What functions will it play in the future? What kind of boosting effect does the development of digital and intelligent technologies for prevention and control in China bring?

The Global Innovation Center came into being for Varian to expand its business from radiotherapy to the whole cancer system. Its main function is to use advanced technology and opportunities of cooperation with leading enterprises in our country to intelligently expand China's cancer prevention and control system. On the one hand, it links some business side, technology side, joint side, workflow management and insurance system work for cancer lifecycle management. On the other hand, digital, artificial intelligence, cloud technology and other enabling national prevention and control systems require the participation of many different disciplines, and the innovation and integration of all disciplines jointly carry out digital chronic disease management. The main purpose of the construction is to help our country gradually develop and expand a full cycle management system, so as to serve our patients.

Thank you for your introduction. At the end of the program, could you please share what plans and expectations you have for Varian Medical to continue to increase its local R&D investment in China in the future?

First of all, Varian is committed to transforming and expanding into a service company with a full cancer cycle. From this perspective, what we need to do is to help realize the transformation of cancer from a disease discovered at a late stage to a chronic disease discovered early and manageable. In the future, the combination of early screening, early diagnosis and diagnosis and treatment is a direction of our scientific research development.

The other is management after treatment. How to live healthily and prevent recurrence for patients living with cancer is the direction we need to work hard in the future localization and innovative development process.

Once again, I would like to thank President Zhang for coming to our interview room to share with you a development status quo of enterprises in China, so that we can see the confidence of enterprise development. Thank you very much.