Help the Development of the Medical Device Industry
It is reported that the special project of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Special Plan for the Science and Technology Development of the Medical Device Industry 2011-2015, has been completed, and is expected to be released in the near future after extensive consultation with medical device enterprises.
China's medical device market enjoys rapid development and broad space
At present, China's medical device market is expanding rapidly. It has become the world's third largest medical device market after the United States and Japan, and China has emerged as a major region driving the growth of the global market. In the next few years, if the current development rate is maintained, China will surpass Japan to become the world's second largest medical device market. China's medical device market is active. The orientation of national policies and the demand for upgrading of equipment of domestic medical and health institutions have turned China into a huge consumer market for medical devices.
Stimulated by market demand and against the background of sustained and stable development of China's economy, China's medical device industry has developed rapidly. In recent years, China's medical device industry has maintained high-speed growth, with the growth rate of sales revenue staying above 17% and an average growth rate of 20.81%. In 2006, the sales revenue of the medical device industry reached 42.771 billion yuan. In 2007, China's medical device industry achieved sales revenue of 54.795 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.11%. Among that, the sales of high-end medical devices have reached 10 billion yuan, maintaining an average annual growth rate of about 20%.
At the same time, the new medical reform also clearly states that the state will increase investment in the construction of public health systems, urban communities and rural grass-roots medical and health care year by year. With medical device enterprises further tapping into the "countywide + community" market, and against the momentum of continuous structural adjustment and industrial upgrading, the medical device industry has entered a period of rapid development. In the future, grass-roots medical institutions in second- and third-tier counties and towns will be the top priority of China's medical device market, and economically underdeveloped regions such as central and western China are also key areas for future development. With the growth of consumption capacity in these regions and the continuous increase of the state's investment in medical reform, the growth space in districts and counties will be quite broad.
Outstanding development problems
According to data, the overall level of medical equipment of domestic medical institutions is still very low at present, the distribution of medical devices among regions and medical institutions is very uneven, and medical resources are mainly concentrated in large urban hospitals; 15% of the existing instruments and equipment in medical institutions across the country are products manufactured before the 1970s, and 60% of the equipment are products manufactured before the mid-1980s.
Behind the booming development of China's medical device market, there are hidden worries. Similar to China's pharmaceutical industry, China's medical device industry also has the problems of large number of enterprises, small scale, low industry concentration, insufficient scientific research investment and weak innovation capability. In fact, the medical device industry is a high-tech industry with multi-disciplinary intersection, knowledge intensity and capital intensity, and has a high entry barrier. Although there are a large number of Chinese medical device enterprises, most of them can only seek survival in the low- and medium-end market, or provide spare parts for foreign enterprises. Their share in the high-end market is less than 1/3, and there is a certain gap between their products and those of foreign enterprises in terms of service life and product quality.
The market share of local Chinese medical device enterprises in the high-end market is very low, and the high-end medical device market is dominated by foreign enterprises. Facing such a broad domestic medical device market, despite the large number of domestic medical device manufacturers, a large amount of medical equipment still needs to be imported from abroad. China spends hundreds of millions of US dollars of foreign exchange importing a large number of medical equipment from abroad every year, and nearly 70% of China's domestic medical device market has been seized by foreign companies.
Multiple favorable factors will promote the sustainable development of the medical device industry
A relevant person in charge of the Planning and Finance Department of the National Health Commission of China stated at the 20th Annual Academic Meeting of the China Association of Medical Equipment this year that during the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, the investment in medical device and equipment projects will continue to be increased, to support grass-roots medical institutions to allocate basic equipment, strengthen the construction of disease control institutions, occupational health prevention and control institutions and maternal and child health care institutions and equip them with excellent equipment, improve the rural emergency system and gradually increase the number of ambulances and high-quality emergency equipment. In addition, the allocation of health education equipment in grass-roots medical and health institutions and the equipment construction of medical and health personnel training bases are also taken into consideration.
Meanwhile, Meng Jianguo, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Medical Equipment, stated at the meeting that supporting the medical device industry will be one of the priorities of the "12th Five-Year Plan".
In the next 5 years, the demand for medical equipment, imaging equipment, laboratory equipment and information products for county-level hospitals in China will surge. "The new medical reform invests heavily in grass-roots medical institutions. This year, the state will invest 2.5 million yuan in each county-level hospital and 2 million yuan in each traditional Chinese medicine hospital." At present, China has more than 1.8 million natural villages and nearly 420,000 township-level governments. In addition, the new medical reform has boosted the private hospital market, which will bring business opportunities to the medical device market.
According to a person from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, during the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, China will vigorously improve the digitization, intelligence, high precision and networking of medical devices, promote the development of domestic medical devices, and it is expected that remanufacturing will be realized in the medical device field in the next step.
According to another person from the Ministry of Science and Technology, this Special Plan provides support for high-end, mid-end and low-end medical devices respectively. There are 10 categories of basic equipment involved in grass-roots medical care, and it is expected to promote high-quality and low-cost color ultrasound equipment suitable for China's national conditions; for the high-end product sector, the issue of high-value consumables will be addressed, and efforts will be made to realize pricing power; medical device service business will be supported.
In addition, with technological progress and the rapid development of China's economy, the accelerated pace of China's integration with the international community will promote the upgrading of domestic equipment and expand the market capacity of medical devices. At the same time, China has a large population base and rapid natural population growth, and natural population growth is a fundamental factor promoting the consumption of medical products. With the development of the economy, people's living standards have also improved. People generally begin to pursue improving the quality of life, have relatively strong health care awareness, and thus have relatively large demand for medical device products.
With the release of national support policies, as well as the development of the market economy and market demand, the medical device industry will embrace sustained and healthy development.