The industry development roadmap determines that the medical device space is vast

The recently released "Made in China 2025" technology roadmap for key areas lists medical devices as a key development direction. The roadmap points out that the rapid development of health demand is extremely incompatible with the current situation of the domestic medical device industry, so the technical roadmap for the development of high-performance medical devices is clarified.

A number of industry insiders told the reporter of China Securities News that the investment in the medical device industry mainly grasps three key points, terminal control ability, technological innovation level and after-sales service quality.

Four factors boost the growth of the industry

The current industry status quo is that the number of medical device companies is large, the scale is small, and the industry concentration is low. There are about 15,000 medical device enterprises in China, but 90% of the enterprise income scale is 10 million to 20 million yuan, the domestic high-end medical device imports account for about 40% of the total market, imported brands occupy seventy percent of the domestic high-end market, import substitution space is broad.

At the same time, there are many medical device segments, large spans, certain R&D and sales barriers, and the market space in the subdivisions is relatively limited, so epitaxial mergers and acquisitions are an effective way for medical device companies to accelerate their growth. In terms of listed companies, Lepu Medical has grown its strength through epitaxial expansion, and the trend of industry mergers and acquisitions and integration is obvious.

For investment in the medical device industry, many industry insiders suggested grasping three key points, including terminal control ability, technological innovation level and after-sales service quality.

An executive of Legend Capital told China Securities News that the ability to control the terminal is the basis for the survival of medical device companies. Foreign companies have occupied the high-end market, including large hospitals and high-end products, and Chinese enterprises have grown step by step from low-value consumables, accumulating financial strength and industrial chain technical capabilities, and then extending to the high end of the value chain. Now more and more domestic companies are able to compete with foreign companies, such as in the field of heart stents, Chinese companies have achieved market dominance. There are still such growth opportunities in other areas of medical devices in the future. "The terminal control ability is reflected in the model, channel and sales, and the future marketing of medical devices will increasingly emphasize de-intermediation, returning to service and technology."

The level of product innovation and service capability are also the focus of investment institutions. In the development of the medical device industry, there are many barriers and thresholds. The development process of enterprises must have their own core competitiveness, especially in the early stage. As the scale expands and gradually reaches the platform level, expansion can be achieved through mergers and acquisitions. Many subdivisions themselves are not large, and it is easy to form leading companies such as Lepu Medical and Mindray Biotechnology.

The import substitution market has brought broad space to the development of the domestic medical device industry, and the upgrading of health care consumption demand caused by the aging of the population, the volume of grassroots markets, the development of private medical institutions and technological innovation and upgrading will jointly help the growth of the industry.

After years of accumulation, the technical level and service quality of domestic enterprises have improved, and they have established certain core competitiveness in some subdivided fields, and initially have the strength to break through from low-end to high-end. With the support of the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" key special project of medical devices of the Ministry of Science and Technology, China's medical devices have made continuous breakthroughs in the field of large and medium-sized medical imaging equipment, such as 1.5T superconducting magnet machines, 64-row spiral CT machines and other independent research and development of equipment to break the monopoly position of multinational companies.

Policy support has been strengthened

At present, the state attaches great importance to the development of the medical device industry strategically, vigorously supports and guides domestic medical devices to "recapture" the domestic market, "enter" the international market, and sets the tone for the specific route planning of high-performance medical devices.

According to the above roadmap, the scale of the medical device industry will reach 600 billion yuan by 2020 and 1.2 trillion yuan by 2025; In 2020, the share of domestic high-end medical devices in county-level hospitals will reach 50%, and by 2025, it will reach 70%; The domestic market share of domestic core components will reach 60% in 2020 and 80% by 2025; It has formed 3-5 internationally renowned brands and 6 upgraded industrial clusters with an output value of more than 100 billion yuan.

In recent years, China has increased its policy support for independent innovation and localization of medical devices, and created a good environment in supervision, innovation approval, and funding. According to the Notice on Printing and Distributing Key Work Tasks for Deepening the Reform of the Medical and Health System in 2014, further strengthen the organization and promotion of pharmaceutical product research and development, and focus on the localization of basic medical device products. In May 2014, the China Medical Equipment Association launched the first batch of medical device selection, the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" goals determined by the key science and technology of medical devices were gradually realized, the new "three major parts" of X-ray machines, ultrasound, biochemistry and other grassroots new "three parts" were upgraded in the whole line, and the localization of high-end products such as MRI, color ultrasound, CT, PET/CT was continuously promoted.

Since 2015, support for medical devices has been further increased, and the Ministry of Science and Technology has issued the "Digital Medical Engineering Technology Development Project"; The Ministry of Science and Technology and the Health and Family Planning Commission jointly promulgated the "Key Special Project for Digital Diagnosis and Treatment Equipment"; The CFDA issued the "Medical Device Industry Standards and Special Approval Procedures for Innovative Medical Devices". The policy dividend will further accelerate the localization process of medical devices.

In addition, the Health and Family Planning Commission requires public hospitals to give priority to the use of domestic medical equipment and equipment, and accelerate the localization of medical devices. Relevant departments are paving the way for the rise of domestic medical devices in improving the registration and review of medical devices, loosening the configuration of large-scale medical equipment, reducing the inspection fees of large-scale medical equipment, increasing investment in science and technology, and guiding the recognition of the domestic market.