Cai Wenjun/Shanghai Daily news

A medical appliance company has received permission to produce cochlea developed by a local hospital, which will potentially help millions of the country's deaf population.
A cochlea is a "spiral-shaped cavity of the inner ear that resembles a snail shell and contains nerve endings essential for hearing." Previously, the manmade cavities have only been available as expensive imports at costs unaffordable for the majority of the country's 27 million deaf population.
However, Shanghai Lishengte Medical Technology Company yesterday received approval from Fudan University's Eye, Ear, Nose & Throat Hospital, which developed the technology domestically, to produce them in China.
Though it still should take one to two years for the company to receive a license from the National Food and Drug Administration and launch mass production, the Chinese models are expected to cost 50,000 yuan (US$6,024). An imported cochlea costs about 200,000 yuan.
"With the huge cost of imported cochlea, less than 1,000 Chinese have been implanted with the device in the past 10 years. It seriously hampers deaf people's living quality and makes children miss their best time to learn a language," said hospital president Gao Jiechun.
In Shanghai, there are 220,000 deaf people.