Low-cost Implant

A Chinese company is now making cochlear implants--for a lot less than others. Hangzhou Nurotron Biotechnology. The device runs about $16,000 which is less than half of the imports like Australia's Cochlear, Ltd, the market leader. Fan-Gang Zeng is director of the Center for Hearing Research at the University of California at Irvine and he started Hangzhou Nurotron Biotechnology 8 years ago. Most of the funds for the startup and research come from the Chinese government.