Non-invasive BCI & Neurotech

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and nine other ministries jointly released the 15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Pharmaceutical Industry, explicitly positioning biomedicine as a national emerging pillar industry and setting quantitative targets including revenue of pharmaceutical enterprises above designated size exceeding 3.5 trillion yuan by 2030 and average annual growth of the innovative drug industry above 20 percent. The National Medical Products Administration recently issued the world's first medical device standard for AI-based EEG brain-computer interface data, marking a new stage of standardized regulation for the integration of AI and medical hardware. At the industry level, the pace of Chinese innovative drugs going overseas has accelerated further this year, with total out-licensing transaction value exceeding 120 billion US dollars, up 36 percent year on year, of which upfront payments exceeded 10 billion US dollars. Huayuan Securities research notes point out that the policy environment for innovative drugs has improved on both the approval and payment sides, clinical CRO demand continues to recover, and the market is expected to keep expanding. Driven by this, as of 10:06 on September 23, 2026, the underlying index of Penghua STAR Market Pharmaceutical ETF, the SSE STAR Market Biomedical Index, rose 1.28 percent, with constituent stocks HOB Biotech up 20.00 percent, Medicilon up 7.62 percent, and Haoyuan Chemexpress up 7.24 percent; the underlying index of Penghua Vaccine ETF, the CNI Vaccine and Biotechnology Index, rose 1.13 percent.

The National Medical Products Administration will advance the implementation of the pharmaceutical trial data protection system, establish market exclusivity periods for pediatric drugs and rare disease medications, and strengthen pre-guidance for innovative drugs with new targets and mechanisms. A responsible official from the NMPA stated that it will also expand the "Spring Rain Action" for transforming clinical innovations in medical devices, and formulate clinical trial and review guiding principles in frontier areas such as brain-computer interfaces. Zhongtai Securities noted that AI4S is expanding from single-point tool applications to coordinated development across data, models, wet-lab experiments, and R&D processes, and that life science upstream and CXO companies with high-quality data accumulation, automated experimental platforms, and industrial customer bases are expected to benefit continuously. As of 11:22 on September 21, 2026, the Penghua STAR Market Healthcare ETF rose 3.87%, with constituent stock HitGen up 14.54%, and Zelgen Biopharmaceuticals and Huiyu Pharmaceutical following the gains; the Penghua Hang Seng Biotech ETF rose 4.56%.

At a State Council Information Office press conference on the 15th Five-Year Plan, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said it will stay application-driven, deepen the implementation of AI plus manufacturing, support research and development of key technologies such as high-end training chips and multimodal algorithms, tackle frontier technologies including brain-inspired intelligence and world models, advance the iteration of intelligent terminals such as humanoid robots and brain-computer interfaces, and distill high-value scenarios by industry while rolling out a batch of lightweight, low-cost, easy-to-deploy industry solutions. Multiple products under China Southern Fund are positioned in the artificial intelligence industry, including China Southern Digital Economy Mixed Fund, China Southern Technology Pilot Mixed Fund, China Southern Yihe Flexible Allocation Mixed Fund, China Southern Emerging Leaders Flexible Allocation Mixed Fund, and China Southern China Dream Flexible Allocation Mixed Fund.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released on August 24 a draft for comments of the National Brain-Computer Interface Industry Standards System Construction Guidelines 2026 Edition, proposing to formulate or revise more than 40 standards in the brain-computer interface field by 2028 and to promote standards publicity and implementation among over 100 enterprises. In early trading today, consumer sector indices such as daily chemicals, tourism, and hotels and catering led gains, with the daily chemicals industry rising the most. Proya, Betaini, and SYoung Group all gained more than 5 percent, while Qingdao Kingking shot up and sealed the daily limit within two minutes, becoming the only limit-up stock in the daily chemicals sector. Brain-computer interface concept stocks have fallen an average of 15.74 percent this year, but since August the average daily turnover of 10 concept stocks has increased month on month. Beijing Beilu Pharmaceutical had an average daily turnover of 317 million yuan, up 71.83 percent month on month, ranking first. According to statistics from Securities Times Data Treasure, there are currently more than 30 A-share concept stocks involved in the brain-computer interface industry chain, with companies such as Medlander, Vishee, Meihao Medical, Apon Medical, and ZKTeco all having layouts.

Brain-computer interface technology is accelerating its move from the laboratory into clinical and consumer markets. The global market is expected to exceed 360 billion yuan by 2035, with China likely to account for more than 30 percent of that share. Neuralink has announced completion of the world's first brain-computer interface surgery implanted through the dura mater, while China's first subdural implantable brain-computer interface system has also begun national Class III medical device registration clinical trials. Companies listed in both A-share and Hong Kong markets, such as Wision Medical, Sanbo Brain Hospital, and MicroPort NeuroTech, have already achieved commercial revenue through non-invasive rehabilitation, clinical data assets, and implantable products. On the policy front, brain-computer interfaces have been included in the future industries section of the 15th Five-Year Plan. Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong have introduced targeted support policies, and an industry standardization technical committee has also been established. Institutions expect 2027 to become the first year of commercial explosion for brain-computer interfaces.

The medical device sector rebounded in afternoon trading, with Biolight hitting the 20% daily limit up. Earlier, Chaoyan Medical rose by the daily limit, Aohua Endoscopy gained over 10%, and Apon Medical, Rendu Biotechnology, Haitex, Nanwei Medical, and Lude Medical also followed the upward trend. The General Office of the Zhejiang Provincial People's Government issued several measures this morning to promote industry-academia-research collaboration in brain-computer interfaces, aiming for future industry revenue from brain-computer interfaces to exceed 5 billion yuan by 2027, and to establish a globally competitive hub for brain-computer interface technology and industry innovation by 2030.

The Ninth Central China Rehabilitation Forum and the Eleventh Rehabilitation Equipment Expo were held in Anyang, Henan. The Brain-Computer Interface Rehabilitation Technology Innovation Consortium, led by Xiangyu Medical, expanded again, with seven medical institutions including the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University officially joining. Xiangyu Medical also established a joint brain-computer interface laboratory with the School of Rehabilitation at Wenzhou Medical University, and signed clinical strategic cooperation agreements with institutions such as Tongji Hospital affiliated with Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. On the international front, Xiangyu Medical signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the team of international expert Professor Guttenbrunner, and two international platforms—the Rehabilitation International-China Cooperation Center and the International Shockwave Training Base—were unveiled. The expo showcased over a thousand smart rehabilitation products, with the brain-computer interface smart care ward taking center stage. This solution uses non-invasive brain-computer interfaces as its core, enabling patients to control ward facilities through thought. Xiangyu Medical has built a brain-computer rehabilitation product matrix covering scenarios such as movement, cognition, speech, and swallowing. Intelligent devices like the infrared light moxibustion robot and lower-limb exoskeleton rehabilitation robot were also on display. At the policy level, brain-computer interfaces have been included in the government work report's list of future industries to cultivate and in the forward-looking layout of key tracks in the 15th Five-Year Plan outline. In 2024, China's brain-computer interface market reached 3.2 billion yuan, up 18.81 percent year-on-year, and is expected to grow to 4.6 billion yuan by 2026. Xiangyu Medical's 2025 annual report shows that R&D spending accounted for as much as 24.65 percent of operating revenue, underpinning its technology reserves.

The brain-computer interface concept continued its strong momentum in early trading on July 28, with Innovative Medical hitting a 4-day 3-board streak, and Hainan Haiyao, Yanshan Technology, and Thalys Medical hitting the daily limit up. The core catalyst for this rally came from an overseas commercialization milestone: US startup Science Corp.'s retinal chip PRIMA has received EU CE certification, becoming the world's first brain-computer interface device to obtain this certification, and has been approved for sale in 30 European countries. On the domestic front, a Chinese research team unveiled a new EEG signal acquisition device, achieving the world's first cross-regional synchronous EEG signal collection from over a thousand people. The implantable brain-computer interface hand motor function compensation system NEO issued its first prescription in Shanghai and completed the world's first implant surgery. Capital market enthusiasm is high, with total financing in China's brain-computer interface sector exceeding 4.4 billion yuan from January to May 2026, more than doubling the full-year total of last year. A research report from Zheshang Securities pointed out that the market size for brain-computer interface demand in China's serious medical field alone could reach 20 to 60 billion yuan, while the global market is projected to grow from 2.41 billion dollars in 2025 to 12.11 billion dollars in 2035, at a compound annual growth rate of 15.8 percent. Southwest Securities judged that 2026 will be the first year of mass production for brain-computer interfaces, with the industry at the tail end of the introduction phase and on the eve of an explosion.

Major breakthroughs in the brain-computer interface field both domestically and internationally have lifted the STAR Market Healthcare ETF Huaxia by 1.90 percent, with the latest price at 1.02 yuan. US startup Science Corp. has received approval to sell a retinal chip in the European Union that helps patients with geographic atrophy restore partial vision, marking the first time a US brain-computer interface company has brought such a device to the patient market at scale. Meanwhile, a domestic research team has unveiled a new electroencephalogram signal acquisition device, achieving the world's first simultaneous EEG signal collection from over a thousand people across different regions. On the capital flow front, the STAR Market Healthcare ETF Huaxia has seen net inflows for four consecutive days, attracting a total of 94.75 million yuan, with the highest single-day net inflow reaching 65.11 million yuan. Huafu Securities noted that it remains firmly bullish on the sustainability of the pharmaceutical sector rally, recommending a focus on innovative drugs and the industry chain, while also paying attention to the incremental opportunities from medical device exports, particularly hot areas such as surgical robots and brain-computer interfaces.

On July 27, brain–computer interface concept stocks surged across the board. Aipeng Medical hit the 20 percent daily limit up, Chengdu Sino Microelectronics rose 13.48 percent, Breo Technology gained 10.45 percent, Sanbo Brain Hospital advanced 10.44 percent, and Saili Medical, Chuangxin Medical, and Nanjing Panda all touched the daily limit up. Among them, Chuangxin Medical achieved three boards in two days. On the news front, US brain–computer interface startup Science Corp has received approval to sell a retinal chip in the European Union that can help restore partial vision in patients with geographic atrophy. This marks the first time a US brain–computer interface company has brought a related device to the patient market at scale. The company was valued at 1.5 billion dollars in March, making it the second most valuable brain–computer interface firm in the United States. In addition, Shanghai recently introduced measures to promote the listing of brain–computer interface and other emerging industry companies on the STAR Market, and a Chinese research team has unveiled a new type of EEG acquisition device that, for the first time globally, enables synchronous EEG signal collection from over a thousand people across different locations.

Domestic brain-computer interface technology has achieved a major breakthrough, realizing for the first time the synchronous collection of brainwave signals from over a thousand people across different regions, marking a key step toward neural large model training and general brain-computer interface technology research and development. Driven by this news, brain-computer interface concepts were active during the session. The Sci-Tech Innovation Pharmaceutical ETF Penghua saw active trading. As of 9:49 a.m. on July 24, 2026, the ETF's latest quote was 1.05 yuan, with an intraday turnover rate of 2.24 percent and a trading volume of 7.47 million yuan. As of July 23, the ETF's average daily trading volume over the past month was 23.76 million yuan. The Sci-Tech Innovation Pharmaceutical ETF Penghua closely tracks the Shanghai Stock Exchange Science and Technology Innovation Board Biomedical Index. The top ten weighted stocks of this index include United Imaging Healthcare, Allist Pharmaceuticals, and BeiGene, accounting for a total of 51.84 percent. A research report from China Securities recommends paying attention to undervalued and high-growth stocks in the medical device sector, and points out that new technology directions such as surgical robots and brain-computer interfaces are expected to continue catalyzing sector enthusiasm.

Science Corp, a US neurotechnology startup, will begin selling its Prima retinal implant chip in Europe after receiving CE marking, which partially restores vision for patients with geographic atrophy due to age-related macular degeneration without requiring additional country-by-country approvals. It is the first implantable device from the company, which also develops brain implants, to become widely available to patients. The Prima device is a chip placed behind the eye that works with special glasses. According to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine last year, it improved vision in 26 out of 32 patients. The company expects to implant the device in its first commercial patient in August, likely in Germany, and aims to implant dozens of patients this year and around 200 next year. Science Corp has raised 489 million dollars and is valued at 1.5 billion dollars, making it the second most valuable US brain implant technology company after Elon Musk's Neuralink.