An overview of the development of China's low-value medical supplies industry

Low-value medical supplies mainly refers to the medical institutions in the process of carrying out medical services often used disposable sanitary materials (such as gauze, cotton swabs, gloves, syringes, etc.), can be subdivided into medical hygiene materials and dressings, injection puncture, medical polymer materials, medical disinfection, anesthetic supplies, operating room supplies and medical supplies (low-value medical supplies market segment and its representative products list).The market pattern and scale ofto benefit from the growth of medical demand, China's low-value medical supplies market continued to maintain high-speed growth. In 2018, China's low-value medical supplies market size of about 64.1 billion yuan, an increase of 19.8% year-on-year. In China's low-value medical supplies market segments, the market share of the top five areas are injection puncture, medical hygiene materials and dressings, medical polymer materials, medical supplies and medical disinfection, of which, injection puncture market accounted for 30%, medical hygiene materials and dressings market accounted for 22% (see figure). Overall, China's low-value medical supplies market segmentation of many types, market pattern is scattered, the relevant enterprises only High Medical Market accounted for a relatively high, reaching 11.9%, Condele accounted for 2.26%, Vili Medical accounted for 1.15%, other enterprises accounted for less than 1%.Injection puncture market size With the aging of China's population, the number of patients increased significantly, the frequency of injection treatment, diagnostic testing and vaccination will also increase, the demand for injectable puncture medical devices will continue to grow. According to the China Medical Devices Blue Book data, in 2018, China's injectable puncture medical devices market size reached 39.56 billion yuan, a growth rate of 9.5%.Medical dressing market size China's medical dressing industry is in the dominant stage of traditional dressings, products to gauze, cotton-based, the proportion of new medical dressings is low, high-end dressing market is still in the cultivation stage. With the continuous improvement of living standards and the acceleration of the aging process, the number of operations in medical institutions is increasing, china's wound care medical dressing market size in 2018 has exceeded 66 billion yuan.China's medical dressing industry scale above the scale of enterprises to export to start, relying on exports gradually form a scale advantage, and build a complete production line and a sound management system, the traditional wound care products have reached the world's advanced level. China is already the world's largest exporter of medical dressings, medical dressings export products are mainly sold to the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan and other international markets, most of them are internationally renowned medical device brand manufacturers of processing products. In 2018, China's exports of medical dressings exceeded US$2.6 billion.

investment in research and development isThe amount of research and development investment of listed companies in China's low-value medical supplies industry is small, but the overall investment in research and development remains on the rise. China has a total of 10 low-value medical supplies listed companies, in addition to Blue Fan Medical through mergers and acquisitions into the field of cardiovascular intervention devices after the higher research and development costs (in 2018, its research and development costs reached 183 million yuan), the other 9 listed companies are not more than 80 million yuan / year, the least investment in research and development of the two enterprises only about 20 million yuan / year. Research and development investment of 10 listed companies with low-value medical supplies remained on the rise overall, with 5 companies increasing their research and development investment by more than 20% in 2018 and Sanxin Medical, Zhende Medical and Kantlai increasing by nearly 40% year-on-year in 2018.Low-value medical supplies enterprises research and development investment ratio is generally low, the average maintained at less than 5%. Yangpu Medical has maintained a high proportion of research and development investment in recent years to transform in vitro diagnostic reagents and instrument development, as a result of the development of insulin needles and insulin pens, Puhua and Shun's research and development investment ratio increased from about 3.5% in 2017 to about 9% in 2018, BlueFan Medical entered the field of cardiovascular intervention devices, the proportion of research and development investment also increased rapidly.After years of technology accumulation, most of China's low-value medical supplies listed companies set up provincial and municipal science and technology research and development platform, Sanxin Medical and Zhende Medical also with academicians to establish a workstation. Most low-value medical supplies listed enterprises for the core technology set up a certain degree of patent barriers, of which, Kantley and Yangpu Medical invention patents more. (Author: Huaxia Keystone Industrial Services Group)