Insights into Medical Device Enterprises and Market Trends in 2025
01 .Overview of Data on Medical Device Listed Companies
- Overall revenue remained basically flat, while consumables companies performed better
In the first half of 2025, the average revenue scale of over 170 domestic listed medical device enterprises (only those with R&D and production as their main business are counted) was 895 million yuan, a slight decrease compared with the same period last year. Looking at specific segments, the revenue scale in the fields of low-value consumables and high-value consumables has achieved growth, while other fields have declined to varying degrees.
- The R&D intensity is relatively stable, while the high-value consumables sector as a whole has shown a phased decline.
In recent years, the R&D intensity (the proportion of R&D investment in revenue) of China’s listed medical device companies has steadily increased and then slightly declined, currently remaining at around 10%, which is generally higher than the level in 2021-2022.From the perspective of segmented fields, the research and development intensity in the high-value consumables field has shown a phased decline in recent years during the period from 2021 to the first half of 2025.The in vitro diagnostic field saw significant growth in 2023, with relatively stable R&D investments in areas such as equipment and low-value consumables.
- The contribution of overseas business continues to increase, which is particularly evident in the field of medical equipment.
In recent years, the proportion of overseas revenue of China’s listed medical device companies has shown a V-shaped rebound. From a segmented perspective, the overseas revenue of enterprises in low-value consumables and medical equipment is relatively high. Among them, the proportion of overseas revenue of medical equipment in the first half of 2025 increased by nearly 7 percentage points year-on-year; both high-value consumables and in vitro diagnostics fields achieved steady growth.
02 .Important Influential Events in Industry Development
| Serial Number |
Key Practices |
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| 1 | Fiscal health expenditure | From January to July 2025, the national fiscal health expenditure was 1.2402 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.3%, showing a significant improvement compared to the same period last year (a year-on-year decrease of 12%) |
| 2 | Innovative instrument support
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In June 2025, the National Medical Products Administration approved the “Measures for Optimizing Full Life Cycle Supervision to Support the Innovative Development of High end Medical Devices”
Starting from July 2025, the National Healthcare Security Administration has held a series of symposiums on “Healthcare Security Supporting Innovative Drug and Device Series” |
| 3 | Large-scale equipment renewal | As an important area of equipment renewal support planned until 2027, the national medical equipment renewal project is gradually being implemented. In the first half of the year, the number of procurement intention projects nationwide exceeded 410, a significant increase compared to last year |
| 4 | Construction of county-level medical community | In the first half of 2025, the procurement scale of county-level medical communities increased by nearly 600% year-on-year, and the procurement of equipment by primary medical institutions accelerated. |
| 5 | National centralized procurement | The product scope of the sixth round of national medical consumables centralized procurement has been determined as drug-coated balloons and urological materials.
The national organization renews the procurement agreement upon expiration for orthopedic spinal products and national organization coronary support products. |
| 6 | Uncertainty in international trade | China’s medical device exports to the United States dropped significantly in the second quarter of 2025, and the export volume has rebounded year-on-year since July. |
| 7 | Localization strategy | Foreign-funded enterprises in the imaging industry have a relatively high degree of localization (with an increasing number of products approved under the “National Medical Device Registration Approval”), and the localization penetration of ophthalmic, stomatological, and surgical equipment is accelerating. |
03. Market Trend Insight
- Equipment: The recovery of procurement and bidding is fostering an inflection point for the recovery of the domestic market, and enterprises are accelerating the expansion into new overseas markets
Considering dimensions such as the sales cycle, we speculate that manufacturers in key areas of equipment renewal (mainly imaging equipment) are expected to have their performance confirmed successively in the third and fourth quarters of this year.As large-scale equipment renewal projects are gradually implemented, the market size of China’s key medical equipment sectors from January to August 2025 has seen a significant year-on-year growth, which stands in contrast to the operating income of enterprises in the first half of the year. Considering factors such as procurement compliance, equipment renewal, and the construction of county-level medical alliances in recent years, the overall annual procurement volume of medical equipment at the hospital end is expected to grow by more than 15% year-on-year.
From January to July 2025, China’s export volume of medical equipment (including IVD instruments) increased by 13% year-on-year. The United States remains the largest export destination for China’s medical equipment. Affected by fluctuations in the trade situation, China’s equipment export volume to the United States decreased by more than 10% year-on-year from April to June, but the export volume returned to positive growth in July (approximately 5.1%).In addition, Chinese medical devices are increasing their layout overseas, and developing countries such as Brazil and Indonesia have become new growth markets for China’s medical device exports.
In terms of high-value consumables, the state has organized multiple centralized procurement efforts. The price involution of products has gradually “cooled down”, and the market is moving from a “low-price first” approach to a stage of sustainable development that emphasizes both quality and price, as well as fairness and standardization. Against this backdrop, in the first half of 2025, China’s high-value consumables market achieved a “double growth” in the number of surgeries and corporate revenue. Enterprises have reduced their sales costs through centralized procurement and are paying more attention to innovation and upgrading. With the support of policies across various regions regarding the exemption of fees for innovative medical devices in the catalog, enterprises have entered a favorable situation of product innovation and revenue and profit growth. At the same time, cost-effective conventional products (such as intraocular lenses) have greatly driven the demand for their use.
In terms of low-value consumables, against the backdrop of a slowdown in the overall growth of domestic outpatient visits in the first half of the year (with a decline in some provinces and cities), the usage growth of non-operating room products such as puncture supplies, hygiene materials, and medical technology supplies has been restricted. With the coverage of centralized procurement varieties at the provincial and municipal levels, the scale of the domestic market has been affected in stages, which has further strengthened enterprises’ pace of deploying overseas markets.
China is encouraging China end uses for more domestic products in latest years. Thus, more and more overseas manufacturers are planning localization in China. BradyKnows localization team has extensive experiences in facility establishment, audit, supplier evaluation, manufacturing, registration, and marketing in China. Pls feel free to let us know any questions on China entry via info@bradyknowsmedical.com
Source: Mddi
Translated & edited：Bradyknown
