On the evening of October 30, California time, Professor John Adler, an internationally renowned neurosurgeon and founder of ZAP Surgical (hereinafter  "ZAP"), a company invested in by Baheal Medical (SZ.301015), was awarded the 2026 Fogarty Prize in San Diego, California. For decades, he has been dedicated to advancing physician-engineer collaboration and driving the translation of radiosurgery technologies into clinical applications and innovative products. His contributions have earned high recognition from the international medical community.

Professor John Adler delivers his acceptance remarks

The recognition comes shortly after another major honor for ZAP: Professor Karl Deisseroth, the company's first scientific advisor, has just received the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Together, the two awards represent dual recognition of the ZAP team's innovative vision and technological approach -- from both the top global scientific community and the medical innovation sector.

Named after Thomas J. Fogarty, a pioneering figure in vascular surgery widely known as the "Edison of medical device invention," the Fogarty Prize is a major international award recognizing translational innovation in medical devices. Its focus differs from that of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which primarily honors major breakthroughs in basic science that expand the boundaries of human knowledge. The Fogarty Prize, by contrast, recognizes inventions that have successfully reached the market, delivered disruptive clinical change, and genuinely benefited patients. As one of the most prestigious awards in medical device innovation and commercialization, it enjoys strong recognition among investors and clinicians in the United States involved in translating medical-engineering advances into clinical applications.

Professor Adler trained under Professor Lars Leksell, a towering figure in Swedish neurosurgery. Building on Leksell's concept of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), Adler pushed the field into a new era of precise image guidance. In the 1990s, he invented CyberKnife, the world's first radiotherapy system equipped with a robotic arm and real-time image guidance, ending more than three decades of technological stagnation in radiosurgery. In recognition of this pioneering achievement, Adler was inducted into the U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2025, cementing his status as one of the field's most distinguished innovators.

This year's Fogarty Prize recognizes his sustained contributions to innovation in frameless image-guided radiosurgery. From CyberKnife to the next-generation ZAP-X radiosurgery robot, his technological innovations have benefited hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide.

Professor John Adler at the award ceremony

Brain metastases remain a major clinical challenge worldwide. Most drug therapies cannot effectively cross the blood-brain barrier, conventional craniotomy involves substantial surgical trauma, and standard radiotherapy can cause cerebral edema. For the more than five million patients worldwide with brain tumors, every advance in treatment technology can make a significant clinical difference. To address this unmet medical need, Professor Adler and his team developed ZAP-X, a radiosurgery robot specifically designed for treating tumors and other indications for intracranial and neck region. Its innovative design incorporates several world-first features, including a dual-gantry spherical structure and real-time imaging and dose validation system. Together, these features enable highly precise targeting of intracranial lesions while maximally protecting surrounding healthy brain tissue.

In 2024, sharing the vision of "Better Science, Better Health," Baheal made a strategic investment in ZAP, launching a comprehensive charge of ZAP-X's commercialization, localized manufacturing, and clinical research program in China. To date, ZAP-X has obtained marketing approvals in 28 countries and regions worldwide, with approximately 10,000 clinical treatments completed. Global clinical data have demonstrated its significant advantages, particularly in treating multiple refractory brain metastases and brain tumors that recur or progress despite multiple courses of radiotherapy. The technology also holds potential for expansion into neuromodulation applications, including the treatment of refractory depression.

In China, Baheal has put ZAP-X's global manufacturing center into operation and begun shipments, ensuring global market supply under its "Made in China, Delivered Globally" approach. The company has also established 6 third-party ZAP-X radiosurgery treatment centers. One of these, the ZAP-X Treatment Center at Peking University International Hospital, has already treated dozens of patients. Baheal will continue to strengthen its multi-center, multi-dimensional clinical research framework for ZAP-X and explore the potential applications of radiosurgery in oncology, neurology, psychiatry and other fields, with the aim of bringing better treatment options to patients worldwide.

Baheal's investment in innovation is driven by a commitment to optimizing clinical scenarios, not by chasing short-term trends. Its long-standing experience in the healthcare industry has given the company the expertise to evaluate emerging sectors and identify innovative technologies with genuine competitive barriers and clinical value. Unlike purely financial investors, Baheal draws on its mature industrial resources to provide innovative projects with comprehensive support across the entire development chain, from funding and clinical development to regulatory affairs and industrialization. By helping these projects progress from innovation to commercial application, the company works to bring cutting-edge medical technologies into clinical practice and make them accessible to patients. Innovative projects such as ZAP, BiroHealth, and Jiluntai stand as compelling proof of Baheal's industrial empowerment of innovation and its commitment to long-term value.