Siemens Healthineers has achieved a significant milestone with the successful market approval from China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) for its first domestically produced dual-source photon-counting CT, the NAEOTOM Alpha.Pro.
This product entered the special review process for innovative medical devices in October 2025 and will be manufactured locally at Siemens Healthineers' Shanghai research, development, and production base.
Siemens Healthineers' current photon-counting CT portfolio features three devices: the NAEOTOM Alpha.Peak, NAEOTOM Alpha.Pro, and NAEOTOM Alpha.Prime, which are tiered-priced to target the high-end, mid-range, and more affordable market segments, respectively.
The company has previously indicated that both the NAEOTOM Alpha.Pro and NAEOTOM Alpha.Prime models were developed by engineers in Shanghai. It is anticipated that the company's second domestically produced photon-counting CT product will also receive approval within the year.
The NAEOTOM Alpha platform has seen rapid global adoption, with data indicating it has performed over 3.5 million scans worldwide, been the subject of more than 1,200 published papers, and has been installed for use across 22 provinces and regions in China.
As the world's first and China's first commercially available photon-counting CT, the NAEOTOM Alpha family secured approximately 34 orders in China during 2025, with an average price of around 50 million yuan per unit.
Siemens Healthineers has moved swiftly on localization, establishing a comprehensive domestic operational system for its photon-counting CTs. This includes forming a dedicated local product line team in China, whose functions cover the entire product lifecycle from definition and R&D to registration and service, and constructing a dedicated production workshop at its Shanghai facility.
The newly approved NAEOTOM Alpha.Pro model not only maintains the technological strengths of the platform but also introduces new multi-substance, multi-energy applications, which are expected to provide technical support for diagnosing and treating cardiovascular, respiratory, oncological, and metabolic diseases.
The formation of this dual-track strategy, offering both imported and domestically produced models, is set to further accelerate the widespread adoption of photon-counting CTs within 2026.
The race for market share in photon-counting CTs is intensifying. Between late last year and early this year, two major domestic manufacturers, United Imaging and Neusoft Medical, have successfully won bids and installed their own photon-counting CT systems.
On February 9, 2026, a procurement project announcement from The Second Hospital of Lanzhou University showed that Neusoft Medical's NeuViz P10 won the bid at 38.9 million yuan, which included the device, a turnkey project, and a five-year manufacturer service package.
On May 18, 2026, Neusoft Medical announced that the NeuViz P10 had officially been shipped to The Second Hospital of Lanzhou University, marking the company's first mass-produced photon-counting CT delivery to a top-tier hospital.
On December 11, 2025, a government procurement website announcement revealed that United Imaging's uCT Ultima won a bid from the Xiamen Municipal Health Commission for 39.69 million yuan, marking its first successful bid post-approval.
On March 20, 2026, this photon-counting spectral CT was officially put into clinical use at West China Hospital Xiamen, Sichuan University, becoming the first domestically produced photon-counting spectral CT to enter clinical service in China.
It remains to be seen how Siemens Healthineers will compete with these domestic products priced around the 30 million yuan level, a situation that warrants ongoing attention.
Procurement interest for photon-counting CTs from major hospitals continues to be strong, with two notable cases announced just this week.
The Shanghai Clinical Research Center has a procurement intent for an X-ray computed tomography device (photon CT) with a budget of 45 million yuan, expected to be fulfilled in July 2026 to meet clinical and research needs.
Separately, the Chongqing Health Talent Development and Foreign Exchange Center has a collective procurement intent for large medical equipment (photon CT) with a budget of 49.95 million yuan, expected in June 2026. The requirements specify the latest photon-counting CT technology, a warranty of no less than 3 years, a detector using semiconductor materials like cadmium telluride or cadmium zinc telluride or deep silicon, and intelligent imaging workflow technology.
Recently, even a county-level hospital has issued a procurement announcement. On May 22, 2026, Jingjiang City People's Hospital released a tender for an ultra-high-end CT with a budget of 45 million yuan and a maximum bid price of 44.8 million yuan, explicitly seeking a photon-counting CT and accepting bids for imported products.
Jingjiang is a county-level city with a permanent population of 659,000, where an expenditure of 45 million yuan for an ultra-high-end CT was previously almost unimaginable. This indicates that photon-counting CTs are no longer confined to top-tier hospitals, and their adoption is expanding to broader markets.
The imminent launch of Siemens Healthineers' first domestically produced dual-source photon-counting CT is poised to further stir the already competitive photon CT market.
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