Japanese Companies Including Olympus Dominate 95% of the Endoscopy Market
MedInTech, Founded by an Engineer from the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute, Nears Localization of Endoscopy Technology
Motorization and AI Reduce Physician Burden and Assist in Lesion Detection
Chi-won Lee (left), CEO of MedInTech, and Myung-jun Kim, Vice President, explain the flexible endoscope they personally developed at MedInTech’s office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 1st. / Photo by freelance reporter Kim Heung-gu
Only about 15% of domestically developed medical devices successfully reach the market, and fewer than 1% ultimately achieve commercial success. Despite these odds, a growing number of medical device ventures and startups are challenging the high barriers of the global market. To change the reality in which promising domestic medical devices with global potential fail to gain traction, the government joined forces to establish the Inter-Ministerial Medical Device Research and Development Program. This series introduces the stories of small but strong medical device companies selected as the Top 10 Flagship Projects—future national champions expected to compete on the global stage.
On July 21, 2020, a policy forum titled “Promoting the Development of Domestic Medical Device Localization” was held at the National Assembly. Among various medical devices, the focus of the discussion that day was endoscopy.
Joo Young Cho, Director at the Korean Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, who organized the forum, emphasized that “Japanese companies account for as much as 90% of the flexible endoscope market,” adding, “Endoscopy is a field where the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution are highly integrated, and Korea has more than enough capability to develop such devices.”
Endoscopes are essential medical devices that play a critical role in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. In Korea alone, the number of endoscopic examinations reaches approximately 20 million per year. The problem is that despite its importance, the country relies almost entirely on Japanese-made products for endoscopes.
There is, however, a domestic company taking on the challenge of endoscope localization. That company is MedInTech, founded by engineers Chi-won Lee and Myung-jun Kim, both alumni of the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI). Established in 2020, MedInTech is preparing to bring a flexible endoscope developed entirely with domestic technology to market.
In the field of flexible endoscopes used to examine the gastrointestinal tract—including the stomach and colon—three Japanese companies—Olympus, Fujifilm, and Pentax—account for 95% of the global market. Endoscopes are devices that capture images inside the body using miniature cameras. Japanese camera manufacturers entered the endoscopy market more than 50 years ago, rapidly securing dominance and eventually taking over the global market. Among them, Olympus stands out as the undisputed leader, with a market share exceeding 70%.
How, then, was MedInTech able to challenge Olympus, the absolute powerhouse of the endoscopy market?
Both CEO Chi-won Lee and Vice President Myung-jun Kim are former researchers at KERI. Since 2015, KERI has been developing key technologies for flexible endoscopy, including light source units and image processing systems. When Lee and Kim joined the institute in 2017, the development effort gained significant momentum, accelerating full-scale technological advancement.
Graphic: Seo-hee Jung
The most critical technology in endoscopy is whether the scope—the part that actually enters the human body—can be properly realized. CEO Chi-won Lee and Vice President Myung-jun Kim secured the core technologies needed to build an endoscopic scope while researching medical devices together during their graduate studies at Seoul National University. By combining these technologies with those developed at the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI), they were able to create MedInTech’s proprietary flexible endoscopy system.
“An endoscope requires the integration of the light source unit, image processing unit, and scope technology into a single system, so it cannot be realized with just one or two core technologies alone,” Lee said. “Because we had a solid technical foundation that allowed us to integrate all three essential technologies required for endoscopy, we were able to develop a flexible endoscope.”
MedInTech’s technology quickly drew attention from the market. In 2021, the company was selected for a 9.5-billion-won Inter-Ministerial Medical Device Full-Cycle R&D Program in collaboration with Seoul National University Hospital and others. In 2022, it also secured 8 billion won in Series A investment.
Product development is already largely complete. MedInTech’s flexible endoscope became the first in Korea to receive Class II medical device approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS).
Lee explained, “Although product launch is already possible with the Class II approval, we redeveloped a second-generation product that better reflects physicians’ usability needs. Our goal is to obtain MFDS approval for this second-generation product by the end of this year and begin actual sales next year.” As part of the inter-ministerial R&D program, MedInTech will also begin large-scale clinical trials with Seoul National University Hospital starting next year.
MedInTech is not focused solely on the domestic market. The company plans to target overseas markets as well, with an endoscope that improves upon the performance of Japanese products. Conventional endoscopes are mechanical, requiring physicians to hold a control body weighing around 800 grams and manually operate the endoscope using their thumb. MedInTech succeeded in motorizing the control body and knobs of the endoscope. MedInTech is the first company to motorize a flexible endoscope.
“With motorization, the weight of the endoscope was reduced by about half, and physicians no longer need to manually hold and control every function,” Kim explained.
MedInTech has also integrated artificial intelligence (AI) technology into its endoscope. The AI-powered endoscopy system automatically corrects internal organ images to help physicians identify abnormalities more easily, and goes a step further by enabling the AI to detect abnormalities directly and alert the physician.
“The software developed by MedInTech can reconstruct the entire organ in three dimensions and even indicate where blind spots were skipped during the procedure,” Lee said. The ability to integrate AI into endoscopy was made possible because MedInTech adopted motorized control, rather than the mechanical endoscopes used by Japanese manufacturers.
[메드테크, 우리가 국대다] ①일본 장악한 내시경 시장…‘전동화·AI’로 도전장
조선비즈
재생186
Not only in Korea but globally, the endoscopy market is growing at a rapid pace each year. According to market research firm MarketsandMarkets, the global endoscopy equipment market is expected to grow from USD 27.3423 billion (approximately KRW 36.0 trillion) in 2021 to USD 39.276 billion (approximately KRW 51.8 trillion) by 2026, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.5%. Beyond gastrointestinal endoscopy commonly encountered through routine health screenings, the market spans a wide range of fields including laparoscopy, gynecological endoscopy, arthroscopy, and urological endoscopy.
MedInTech also plans to expand its business beyond the domestic gastrointestinal endoscopy market into overseas markets and a broader range of medical devices.
CEO Lee stated, “We are already preparing for entry into the U.S. and European markets, and starting with gastrointestinal endoscopy, we are also reviewing various medical device businesses, including flexible surgical robots. By combining our core technologies—motorization and AI—we will ultimately be able to develop medical devices that can support remote medical care.”
Chi-won Lee, CEO of MedInTech:
“AI Dramatically Reduces Misdiagnosis Rates… Innovation on the Level of Electric Vehicles”**
“Korean physicians are already among the best in the world. However, Korean-made medical devices have not been able to adequately support their capabilities. To provide treatment and diagnosis tailored to the characteristics of Korean patients, medical device companies must respond to the needs of Korean clinicians. But with foreign manufacturers, communication is difficult, and they do not provide services optimized for the Korean market.”
On September 1, in an office near Daehangno, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Chi-won Lee explained the urgency of medical device localization while holding the flexible endoscope he personally helped develop. Just outside MedInTech’s office in Daehangno stands Seoul National University Hospital. Starting next year, the flexible endoscope developed by MedInTech is scheduled to undergo large-scale clinical validation at Seoul National University Hospital.
In an interview with ChosunBiz, Chi-won Lee, CEO of MedInTech, emphasized the urgency of localizing medical devices. In particular, endoscopes—essential tools for the diagnosis and treatment of many diseases—are among the most urgent targets for localization, as Japanese companies hold approximately 95% of the market share. / Photo by Kim Heung-gu, contributing reporter
Flexible endoscopes are dominated by Japanese companies such as Olympus, which control 95% of the global market. Korea performs more endoscopic screenings and treatments than almost any other country, yet remains heavily dependent on Japanese-made endoscopic equipment.
Lee expressed confidence that MedInTech’s flexible endoscope developed entirely with domestic technology can disrupt a market long dominated by Japanese products. “Mechanical endoscopes made by Japanese companies are heavy and difficult to integrate with advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI),” he said. “Our endoscope was motorized from the ground up, enabling us to add a wide range of functions, including AI-based automatic interpretation.”
In practice, MedInTech’s AI software automatically detects lesions on the gastric wall and alerts physicians, while also indicating internal areas of an organ that have not yet been examined. Lee described the technology as one that can significantly reduce misdiagnosis rates, likening it to the technological leap from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles.
Even before its market launch, MedInTech’s endoscope has attracted strong interest from the medical community. “We frequently receive inquiries from clinicians and hospitals asking when the product will be released,” Lee said. “With Japanese endoscopes, repairs often take a long time, and feedback from Korean clinicians is not adequately reflected in product development. That’s why expectations for a Korean-made endoscope are high in the field.”
Japanese medical device companies such as Olympus have built five decades of experience in the endoscopy market. For a Korean startup just stepping onto the starting line, the challenge may appear to be a David-versus-Goliath battle. Nevertheless, Lee pledged to do his utmost to develop medical devices that meet the capabilities of Korean clinicians. “If the medical device industry grows,” he said, “then together with the already world-class skills of Korean physicians, Korea can move closer to becoming a truly advanced medical nation.”
Exterior view of MedInTech’s research center located in Jongno-gu, Seoul.
MedInTech, which will begin large-scale clinical trials with Seoul National University Hospital starting next year, relocated its headquarters this year to an area near the hospital. / Photo by Kim Heung-gu, contributing reporter
By Jonghyeon Lee
iu@chosunbiz.com
View the original article
조선비즈 :https://biz.chosun.com/science-chosun/medicine-health/2023/09/18/KDHBCGBK6JBZLAFRX2XSHNCPJI/?utm_source=naver&utm_medium=original&utm_campaign=biz
Japanese Companies Including Olympus Dominate 95% of the Endoscopy Market
MedInTech, Founded by an Engineer from the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute, Nears Localization of Endoscopy Technology
Motorization and AI Reduce Physician Burden and Assist in Lesion Detection
Chi-won Lee (left), CEO of MedInTech, and Myung-jun Kim, Vice President, explain the flexible endoscope they personally developed at MedInTech’s office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 1st. / Photo by freelance reporter Kim Heung-gu
Only about 15% of domestically developed medical devices successfully reach the market, and fewer than 1% ultimately achieve commercial success. Despite these odds, a growing number of medical device ventures and startups are challenging the high barriers of the global market. To change the reality in which promising domestic medical devices with global potential fail to gain traction, the government joined forces to establish the Inter-Ministerial Medical Device Research and Development Program. This series introduces the stories of small but strong medical device companies selected as the Top 10 Flagship Projects—future national champions expected to compete on the global stage.
On July 21, 2020, a policy forum titled “Promoting the Development of Domestic Medical Device Localization” was held at the National Assembly. Among various medical devices, the focus of the discussion that day was endoscopy.
Joo Young Cho, Director at the Korean Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, who organized the forum, emphasized that “Japanese companies account for as much as 90% of the flexible endoscope market,” adding, “Endoscopy is a field where the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution are highly integrated, and Korea has more than enough capability to develop such devices.”
Endoscopes are essential medical devices that play a critical role in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. In Korea alone, the number of endoscopic examinations reaches approximately 20 million per year. The problem is that despite its importance, the country relies almost entirely on Japanese-made products for endoscopes.
There is, however, a domestic company taking on the challenge of endoscope localization. That company is MedInTech, founded by engineers Chi-won Lee and Myung-jun Kim, both alumni of the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI). Established in 2020, MedInTech is preparing to bring a flexible endoscope developed entirely with domestic technology to market.
In the field of flexible endoscopes used to examine the gastrointestinal tract—including the stomach and colon—three Japanese companies—Olympus, Fujifilm, and Pentax—account for 95% of the global market. Endoscopes are devices that capture images inside the body using miniature cameras. Japanese camera manufacturers entered the endoscopy market more than 50 years ago, rapidly securing dominance and eventually taking over the global market. Among them, Olympus stands out as the undisputed leader, with a market share exceeding 70%.
How, then, was MedInTech able to challenge Olympus, the absolute powerhouse of the endoscopy market?
Both CEO Chi-won Lee and Vice President Myung-jun Kim are former researchers at KERI. Since 2015, KERI has been developing key technologies for flexible endoscopy, including light source units and image processing systems. When Lee and Kim joined the institute in 2017, the development effort gained significant momentum, accelerating full-scale technological advancement.
Graphic: Seo-hee Jung
The most critical technology in endoscopy is whether the scope—the part that actually enters the human body—can be properly realized. CEO Chi-won Lee and Vice President Myung-jun Kim secured the core technologies needed to build an endoscopic scope while researching medical devices together during their graduate studies at Seoul National University. By combining these technologies with those developed at the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI), they were able to create MedInTech’s proprietary flexible endoscopy system.
“An endoscope requires the integration of the light source unit, image processing unit, and scope technology into a single system, so it cannot be realized with just one or two core technologies alone,” Lee said. “Because we had a solid technical foundation that allowed us to integrate all three essential technologies required for endoscopy, we were able to develop a flexible endoscope.”
MedInTech’s technology quickly drew attention from the market. In 2021, the company was selected for a 9.5-billion-won Inter-Ministerial Medical Device Full-Cycle R&D Program in collaboration with Seoul National University Hospital and others. In 2022, it also secured 8 billion won in Series A investment.
Product development is already largely complete. MedInTech’s flexible endoscope became the first in Korea to receive Class II medical device approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS).
Lee explained, “Although product launch is already possible with the Class II approval, we redeveloped a second-generation product that better reflects physicians’ usability needs. Our goal is to obtain MFDS approval for this second-generation product by the end of this year and begin actual sales next year.” As part of the inter-ministerial R&D program, MedInTech will also begin large-scale clinical trials with Seoul National University Hospital starting next year.
MedInTech is not focused solely on the domestic market. The company plans to target overseas markets as well, with an endoscope that improves upon the performance of Japanese products. Conventional endoscopes are mechanical, requiring physicians to hold a control body weighing around 800 grams and manually operate the endoscope using their thumb. MedInTech succeeded in motorizing the control body and knobs of the endoscope. MedInTech is the first company to motorize a flexible endoscope.
“With motorization, the weight of the endoscope was reduced by about half, and physicians no longer need to manually hold and control every function,” Kim explained.
MedInTech has also integrated artificial intelligence (AI) technology into its endoscope. The AI-powered endoscopy system automatically corrects internal organ images to help physicians identify abnormalities more easily, and goes a step further by enabling the AI to detect abnormalities directly and alert the physician.
“The software developed by MedInTech can reconstruct the entire organ in three dimensions and even indicate where blind spots were skipped during the procedure,” Lee said. The ability to integrate AI into endoscopy was made possible because MedInTech adopted motorized control, rather than the mechanical endoscopes used by Japanese manufacturers.
Not only in Korea but globally, the endoscopy market is growing at a rapid pace each year. According to market research firm MarketsandMarkets, the global endoscopy equipment market is expected to grow from USD 27.3423 billion (approximately KRW 36.0 trillion) in 2021 to USD 39.276 billion (approximately KRW 51.8 trillion) by 2026, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.5%. Beyond gastrointestinal endoscopy commonly encountered through routine health screenings, the market spans a wide range of fields including laparoscopy, gynecological endoscopy, arthroscopy, and urological endoscopy.
MedInTech also plans to expand its business beyond the domestic gastrointestinal endoscopy market into overseas markets and a broader range of medical devices.
CEO Lee stated, “We are already preparing for entry into the U.S. and European markets, and starting with gastrointestinal endoscopy, we are also reviewing various medical device businesses, including flexible surgical robots. By combining our core technologies—motorization and AI—we will ultimately be able to develop medical devices that can support remote medical care.”
Chi-won Lee, CEO of MedInTech:
“AI Dramatically Reduces Misdiagnosis Rates… Innovation on the Level of Electric Vehicles”**
“Korean physicians are already among the best in the world. However, Korean-made medical devices have not been able to adequately support their capabilities. To provide treatment and diagnosis tailored to the characteristics of Korean patients, medical device companies must respond to the needs of Korean clinicians. But with foreign manufacturers, communication is difficult, and they do not provide services optimized for the Korean market.”
On September 1, in an office near Daehangno, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Chi-won Lee explained the urgency of medical device localization while holding the flexible endoscope he personally helped develop. Just outside MedInTech’s office in Daehangno stands Seoul National University Hospital. Starting next year, the flexible endoscope developed by MedInTech is scheduled to undergo large-scale clinical validation at Seoul National University Hospital.
In an interview with ChosunBiz, Chi-won Lee, CEO of MedInTech, emphasized the urgency of localizing medical devices. In particular, endoscopes—essential tools for the diagnosis and treatment of many diseases—are among the most urgent targets for localization, as Japanese companies hold approximately 95% of the market share. / Photo by Kim Heung-gu, contributing reporter
Flexible endoscopes are dominated by Japanese companies such as Olympus, which control 95% of the global market. Korea performs more endoscopic screenings and treatments than almost any other country, yet remains heavily dependent on Japanese-made endoscopic equipment.
Lee expressed confidence that MedInTech’s flexible endoscope developed entirely with domestic technology can disrupt a market long dominated by Japanese products. “Mechanical endoscopes made by Japanese companies are heavy and difficult to integrate with advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI),” he said. “Our endoscope was motorized from the ground up, enabling us to add a wide range of functions, including AI-based automatic interpretation.”
In practice, MedInTech’s AI software automatically detects lesions on the gastric wall and alerts physicians, while also indicating internal areas of an organ that have not yet been examined. Lee described the technology as one that can significantly reduce misdiagnosis rates, likening it to the technological leap from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles.
Even before its market launch, MedInTech’s endoscope has attracted strong interest from the medical community. “We frequently receive inquiries from clinicians and hospitals asking when the product will be released,” Lee said. “With Japanese endoscopes, repairs often take a long time, and feedback from Korean clinicians is not adequately reflected in product development. That’s why expectations for a Korean-made endoscope are high in the field.”
Japanese medical device companies such as Olympus have built five decades of experience in the endoscopy market. For a Korean startup just stepping onto the starting line, the challenge may appear to be a David-versus-Goliath battle. Nevertheless, Lee pledged to do his utmost to develop medical devices that meet the capabilities of Korean clinicians. “If the medical device industry grows,” he said, “then together with the already world-class skills of Korean physicians, Korea can move closer to becoming a truly advanced medical nation.”
Exterior view of MedInTech’s research center located in Jongno-gu, Seoul.
MedInTech, which will begin large-scale clinical trials with Seoul National University Hospital starting next year, relocated its headquarters this year to an area near the hospital. / Photo by Kim Heung-gu, contributing reporter
By Jonghyeon Lee
iu@chosunbiz.com
View the original article
조선비즈 :https://biz.chosun.com/science-chosun/medicine-health/2023/09/18/KDHBCGBK6JBZLAFRX2XSHNCPJI/?utm_source=naver&utm_medium=original&utm_campaign=biz