2026 WIPO Global Awards: Meet the Winners in Health

Dr. Jianping Xiang, founder and CEO of ArteryFlow, and Dr. Ting Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Regend Therapeutics, are the recipients of the 2026 WIPO Global Awards in the health category, targeting cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases, respectively, two of the world’s most pressing health challenges, respectively.

The WIPO Global Awards recognize innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and startups that use IP strategically to bring impactful solutions to market, with winners receiving tailored WIPO mentoring to support their growth.

The scale of the competition highlights the significance of their achievement. The 2026 edition of the WIPO Global Awards received 1,309 applications, including 329 companies competing in the health category. ArteryFlow and Regend Therapeutics stood out not only for the novelty of their technologies but also for demonstrating how strategic management of IP can accelerate innovation and deliver meaningful public health impact.

Using AI to transform cardiovascular care

The same principles used to understand how air moves around an aircraft can also help clinicians understand how blood moves through the human body.

For Dr. Jianping Xiang, innovation is driven by a simple vision: making world-class cardiovascular diagnostics accessible to patients regardless of where they live or their economic circumstances. After earning a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering and spending more than a decade abroad conducting internationally recognized research at the Gates Vascular Institute, he returned to China in 2017 to found ArteryFlow and translate computational blood-flow research into tools for clinical care.

Early diagnosis of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases is essential, yet existing methods can be expensive, invasive and dependent on specialist expertise.

ArteryFlow addresses this challenge by applying principles from aerospace engineering to better understand human blood flow. Using AI to analyze medical images, the platform helps clinicians detect disease, plan interventions and evaluate treatment outcomes. Today, it has been granted regulatory approval in China, Europe and the United States and has already supported the care of more than 100,000 patients worldwide.

For ArteryFlow, IP has been central to transforming scientific research into a globally scalable health care solution. From the company's earliest days, protecting its AI algorithms was a strategic priority. Today, its IP portfolio includes patents, trademarks, software copyrights and design rights. Together, these rights help protect the platform’s technical features, software, brand and design while supporting investment, commercialization and international expansion. To expand internationally, ArteryFlow has pursued patent protection beyond China through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) system and the Paris Convention route.

Intellectual property is at the center of everything we do. Every patent we file is a step toward reaching more people, in more places. IP gives us the confidence to pursue challenging science, protect breakthrough ideas and bring innovation from the lab to hospitals.

Dr. Jianping Xiang, founder and CEO of ArteryFlow

Looking ahead, the company plans to expand its international patent portfolio as it brings its AI-powered diagnostic platform to new markets. Through the WIPO Global Awards mentorship program, ArteryFlow will receive expert guidance to strengthen its international IP strategy and support its continued global growth.

Regenerating lungs instead of simply treating disease

What if damaged lungs could heal from within?

That question has guided Dr. Ting Zhang and the research behind Regend Therapeutics for more than a decade. The company’s journey began with research into lung stem cells and, in 2015, the publication of pioneering findings that helped lay the scientific foundation for regenerative lung medicine. Inspired by the potential to translate this discovery into treatments for patients, Dr. Zhang and her collaborators returned to China from the United States and founded Regend Therapeutics.

Years of research have since brought their discovery from the laboratory to the clinic. The company developed REGEND001, a regenerative cell therapy that uses a patient's own cells to rebuild lung tissue damaged by chronic disease.

Chronic respiratory diseases are the third leading cause of death worldwide, according to research published in The Lancet. While current treatments can slow disease progression or relieve symptoms, they cannot repair damaged lungs. REGEND001 aims to change that by helping restore the lungs’ natural capacity to repair themselves. According to Regend Therapeutics, the therapy has already been used in more than 150 treatments, and patients who once struggled to walk short distances have been able to return to everyday activities.

Regend Therapeutics has relied on IP to protect years of scientific research and support the development of its therapies. The company combines patents, trademarks and trade secrets to safeguard its technologies, attract investment, build partnerships and prepare for commercialization in global markets. Patents protect key elements of the cell therapy, trademarks help differentiate its brand from those of its competitors, while trade secrets help preserve confidential manufacturing and process know-how that may be difficult to protect through patents alone.

Innovation only matters when it reaches patients, and IP is what transforms discovery into treatment. We will continue pushing the boundaries of science until regenerative medicine redefines human health.

Dr. Ting Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Regend Therapeutics

Looking ahead, Regend Therapeutics plans to complete Phase III clinical trials for REGEND001, expand its pipeline to treat additional respiratory diseases and continue building its international IP portfolio. Through the WIPO Global Awards mentorship program, the company hopes to strengthen its global IP strategy and make greater use of international mechanisms such as the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and the Madrid System as it expands worldwide.

WIPO Awards and IP: Catalysts for health innovation

Although their technologies address very different medical challenges, ArteryFlow and Regend Therapeutics share a common lesson: scientific breakthroughs alone are not enough to improve lives.

For ArteryFlow, recognition through the WIPO Global Awards represents an important step in its commercialization journey. As the company’s CEO explained: "Being recognized by the WIPO Global Awards validates our technology and will help us grow our business, attract investment and bring our products to overseas markets."

For Dr. Ting Zhang, the timing of the recognition is particularly significant: “We are moving from the clinical stage to early commercialization, so receiving the WIPO Global Award is especially meaningful.”

This award, combined with a robust IP strategy, may support both companies in their efforts to attract more investment, navigate regulatory pathways, build additional commercial partnerships and prepare for international expansion. Protecting their innovations has played an important role in creating the conditions needed to help transform promising research into solutions with the potential to reach patients worldwide.