Companies Align to Penetrate China’s Hospital Supply Chain

Endonovo Therapeutics Inc. sees its future written in Mandarin and Cantonese. The Woodland Hills biotechnology company, which develops electrical medical therapies, announced last month that it had entered into a non-binding letter of intent for a strategic partnership with U.S. Authentic Trading Co. to penetrate the Asian market. Upon execution of definitive agreements in 2019’s first quarter, USAT would act as the exclusive partner to assist Endonovo with selling its products into China’s network of hospitals. The first of Endonovo’s products to be circulated abroad under the deal will be SofPulse, a non-invasive therapy to help reduce pain and swelling and speed up an individual’s natural recovery process. In the U.S., SofPulse is distributed by Carlsbad-based Magniant Llc, based on an August 2018 agreement. “With nearly 8 million hospital beds in China and the increased costs and health risks associated with opioid use, I am pleased to be working with the U.S. Authentic Trading Company to ensure SofPulse is available throughout mainland China,” Endonovo Therapeutics Chief Executive Alan Collier said in a statement. “The positive results in reducing pain and edema, combined with eliminating opioid use and dependency, is something we are very proud of. We believe that hospitals, treatment centers and medical facilities throughout the world will benefit with SofPulse.” “We’re proud to be associated with them,” USAT spokesman Marco Rosenbaum told the Business Journal in reference to joining forces with Endonovo. A scientist by academic training, Michael Edwards, chief executive of Venice-based USAT, specializes in brand and product introduction into the Chinese consumer market. The focus of Edwards’ recently formed company is gaining access to the coveted Chinese marketplace for small to mid-sized businesses. Rosenbaum, who has a 33-year-long friendship with Edwards dating back to their Yale University days, said Edwards began laying the groundwork for this deal more than a dozen years ago. “(As a businessman), he’s spent 12 years in deep conversations with China,” the spokesman said. “It’s a place where you really need to spend time.” However, things accelerated for Edwards’ after he developed a key contact locally. “He met someone in Los Angeles who is very well connected,” Rosenbaum said, who named a Chinese native with access to China’s highest officials but did not want the person identified in print. Rosenbaum characterized the so-called trade wars between the U.S. and China as a passing phase soon to be resolved, likening President Donald Trump and People’s Republic of China President Xi Jinping to “two brothers fighting at Christmas.” He also heaped praise on Xi for moving the economic needle to the West. “He’s trying to make China like the U.S. and Europe,” Rosenbaum said. “He has the actual desire to make China deal with the U.S. on a one-to-one basis to help U.S. companies be in China and be comfortable.” Endonovo, headquartered at 6320 Canoga Ave., is a public traded company on the Nasdaq. Since the China deal was announced on Dec. 3, its stock has lost 35 percent of its value. In its most recent annual report, the company outlines its strategy “to protect and expand our portfolio of intellectual property in the non-invasive electrotherapeutic device sector.” The company intends to deepen its foothold in the regenerative medicine and tissue engineering industry and in the global neurology devices market. The regenerative medicine industry is expected to reach $6.5 billion by 2019 from a value of $2.6 billion in 2012, according to Transparency Market Research. The global neurology devices market had a $6.2 billion valuation in 2014, according to Grand View Research, and globally, the neurology devices market could reach $10.8 billion by 2022. Endonovo Therapeutics Inc. is based at Warner Center out of the Trillium East Building, a 17-story 1986 building where co-tenants include FM Global insurance; RLJ Entertainment, a privately owned subsidiary of AMC Networks; and Film Roman, the animation company behind Marvel’s “Ultimate Spider-Man” cartoon, and television’s longest-running prime time series, “The Simpsons.”