--- title: "PINS Medical (品驰医疗) ships \"super brain pacemaker\" G108R after 18 years of domestic DBS work" date: 2026-10-23 category: Brain–Computer Interface site: NeuroAI canonical: https://neuroai.site/a/na-brain-pins-super-pacemaker language: en --- # PINS Medical (品驰医疗) ships "super brain pacemaker" G108R after 18 years of domestic DBS work > The Beijing maker's G108R DBS, approved by NMPA in March 2026, charges in 30 minutes a week and is part of China's push to lead therapeutic brain-computer interfaces. For two decades, the "brain pacemaker" that quieted Parkinson's tremors in Chinese patients came from outside the country. A Beijing company spun out of Tsinghua says that has already changed — and its newest device is the argument. ## From a proposal to a market leader PINS Medical (品驰医疗) was registered in 2008 as a Tsinghua University technology-transfer enterprise (清华大学技术成果转化企业). Its origins trace to 2000, when, at the suggestion of academician Wang Zhongcheng (王忠诚院士), a team including general manager Hao Hongwei (郝红伟) began domestic deep-brain-stimulation (脑深部电刺激, DBS) research. The milestone that matters: in 2013 PINS won NMPA approval for the G101, China's first domestically made DBS system. That broke a U.S. monopoly and made China the only country besides the United States able to research, build, and broadly use DBS. In 2018 the project "DBS key technology, system and clinical application" won the National Science and Technology Progress Award First Prize (国家科学技术进步奖一等奖) — the first time a medical-device project took that top honor. PINS did not stop at movement disorders. With Tsinghua and Beijing Tiantan Hospital (北京天坛医院) it founded the National Engineering Research Center for Neuromodulation (神经调控国家工程研究中心) in 2016, China's first national-level body for the field. Its "4S" matrix now spans DBS, VNS (迷走神经刺激), SNM (骶神经刺激), and SCS (脊髓刺激) — and it claims to be the first in the world to field all four mainstream implantable neuromodulation lines. ## The G108R "super brain pacemaker" On April 17, 2026, at the China Brain Science Conference (中国脑科学大会), PINS released the G108R, a next-generation implant that NMPA had approved the month before and that topped a list of fifteen BCI innovation achievements at the 2026 Zhongguancun Forum (中关村论坛). Three claims define it: - **Fast charging.** Under typical settings it needs only 20–30 minutes of charging per week — "charge half an hour, use a full week." - **Ultra-thin.** Volume is 13.7 cc and weight 25 grams, about 43% smaller than the previous generation, reducing the foreign-body feel and supporting directional electrodes for more precise targeting. - **Upgradeable closed loop.** It reserves the hardware and software basis for closed-loop stimulation and MRI compatibility, so it can adjust therapy to the brain's real-time state — a step from open-loop stimulation toward intelligent closed-loop control. It also bundles stimulation-synchronized recording, deep-brain signal sensing, an embedded decoding algorithm, directional stimulation, Bluetooth wireless, and remote programming. ## Scale and reach PINS says DBS holds roughly half of China's market and its full product line has been used in more than 1,000 hospitals across China, with tens of thousands of cumulative implantations. It entered Pakistan in 2017 as the first overseas implant of a Chinese DBS, and now reaches Europe, Asia, and South America — over ten countries — with CE, Singapore HSA, and Australia TGA approvals. In late May 2026 its neuroregulation team supported Zimbabwe's first DBS and first SCS procedures. The first patient implanted in 2009 has now used the device for more than 16 years, a quiet testament to implant longevity that matters as much as any spec sheet. ## A policy tailwind arrives late but real In 2026, brain-computer interfaces were named a future industry in China's government work report for the first time, and the "15th Five-Year" plan listed them among six frontier sectors to cultivate. For a company that spent eighteen years on a single device class, that macro backing arrives as its newest product reaches the clinic rather than the lab — a reminder that in therapeutic BCI, the long quiet grind of approvals and follow-up often matters more than the headline demo. ## Trend reading According to Li An, chief scientist at BrainNet (脑机网), domestic substitution in active implantables proves that China can move from follower to co-specifier once it controls the full stack from chip to clinical protocol. ## Honest limitations Most figures here come from the company's own site and a state-media product launch, not independent testing. "Half the China market" and "tens of thousands of implantations" are company statements we could not cross-check against a market report. Closed-loop function on G108R is described as reserved and upgradeable rather than fully active at launch, so claims about adaptive therapy should be read as near-term capability, not current performance. We have not compared head-to-head against Medtronic, Boston Scientific, or Abbott devices on outcomes or total cost of ownership, and long-term complication rates for the new smaller implant are not yet published. Reimbursement and out-of-pocket cost for Chinese patients are also not detailed here. ## What readers can do now - Patients with Parkinson's, essential tremor, or drug-resistant epilepsy should ask their neurologist whether a domestic DBS such as PINS is appropriate and how it compares on battery life and MRI access with foreign alternatives. - Procurement and hospital buyers evaluating neuromodulation should request independent durability and complication data, not just launch specifications. - Observers of China's medical-device rise can track PINS' overseas regulatory filings (CE, HSA, TGA, and any future FDA) as a real signal of whether "domestic substitution" has become "global export." --- Published by NeuroAI (https://neuroai.site/) — https://neuroai.site/a/na-brain-pins-super-pacemaker Free to quote with attribution and a link to the original.