VUNO, a Kosdaq-listed medical AI company, said Monday that its AI-based chest CT reading assistant solution, VUNO Med-Lung CT AI, has received approval for health insurance coverage in Japan.

VUNO Med-Lung CT AI, which has been certified by Japan's Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA), is a solution that detects lung nodules in lung CT images, providing quantitative information about the nodules.

The product, which has shown tangible results in the Japanese medical market over the past year, is expected to gain momentum in sales growth with the application of local insurance reimbursement.

Japan operates a fee-for-service healthcare system, which qualifies medical institutions that meet certain conditions, allowing them to charge a set premium for each item.

To revitalize the medical AI industry, the Japanese authorities have been applying an additional reimbursement for medical institutions to utilize AI software since 2022.

Japan revises its health insurance reimbursement system every two years, and reimbursement will likely be expanded to general hospitals in the future to increase AI utilization, which is expected for VUNO to continue to expand the market, the company said.

With the Japanese insurance coverage, VUNO plans to focus on strengthening sales and marketing to medical organizations with its Japanese partner M3, conducting new promotions based on reimbursement and actively participating in relevant conferences in Japan this year.

As of December last year, VUNO had already confirmed the potential of its products in the Japanese healthcare market by completing a contract to supply VUNO Med-Lung CT AI to more than 70 hospitals in Japan.

"We expect the Japanese insurance coverage of VUNO Med-Lung CT AI to be a significant mileshone to increase the proportion of VUNO's overseas sales," said Lee Ye-ha, CEO of VUNO. "As we have confirmed the competitiveness of our products in the Japanese medical market over the past year, we plan to strengthen cooperation with our partners to actively conduct sales and marketing activities."