First China-developed ECMO approved for COVID patients

(ECNS) -- China's first domestically produced ECMO, the extracorporal life support product known as "artificial lung," has been approved for emergency use, according to the National Medical Product Administration on Thursday.

To ensure the treatment of severe cases of COVID-19, the administration made the emergency approval for the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) product for adult patients with acute respiratory or acute cardiopulmonary failures and whose conditions are difficult to control with other treatments and are at predictable risk of continued deterioration or death, the administration said on its official website.

The product reaches the international level of similar products in its performance indicators, the drug regulator added.

The Shenzhen-based Chinabridge Medical's product "Lifemotion" was applied to clinical research in 2022.

The price of an ECMO ranges from 1 million yuan (about $150,000) to 3.5 million yuan, and the cost of booting and consumables is quite expensive. It used to cost a patient about 200,000 yuan in two weeks.

Chinabridge Medical said that the domestically developed ECMO system breaks the monopoly situation of European and American products.

The demand for ECMO has surged during the COVID pandemic.