Neurological intervention trapped in ‘involution’
Is neurointervention still a blue Ocean market?
01 The “New Noble” in the Medical Device Race
With economic development and industrial upgrading, domestic medical devices are no longer satisfied with fighting in the low-end field, and more and more ambitious local equipment companies are focusing on the high-end market, which coincides with the goal of national innovation and development.
Capital’s sense of smell is always accurate. In 2020, the concept of neural intervention “exploded overnight”, and relevant domestic enterprises benefited from it and completed several rounds of large-scale financing, laying the original foundation for their subsequent research and development and promotion.
Due to the late start, the neurological intervention market has been dominated by foreign brands, Medtronic, Stryker, Boston Scientific and other industry giants in technology, channels, influence and other aspects of the absolute advantage, domestic brands want to break the game is extremely difficult. But this also reflects an objective fact, that is, in the current environment of supporting domestic production, who can make the first breakthrough, who can get the most lucrative returns.
At this CMEF autumn exhibition, the production department staff of a well-known machinery company mentioned: About 5 or 6 years ago, the main production of neural intervention products of the domestic enterprises were still very few, in recent years, the number of participants significantly increased, although there are many of them want to earn “hot money” speculators, but the expansion of the scale does make the race track competition has become more urgent, which will have a certain benign drive for the development of the entire industry.
According to the White Paper on the Status Quo and Future Development of China’s neurological Intervention Industry released by Sullivan, from 2017 to 2021, the number of stroke cases in China increased from 4.564 million to 5.173 million, with a compound annual growth rate of 3.2%. It is estimated that by 2026 and 2032, the number of stroke cases in China will increase to about 6.047 million and 7.238 million.
According to the National Health Commission of China, by the end of November 2022, 602 stroke centers in tertiary hospitals and 1,125 in secondary hospitals have been built nationwide. With the expansion of the scale of stroke centers, the application scenarios of neurointerventional technology have also been widely expanded, which has laid a considerable market prospect for neurointerventional products.
02 There are risks behind prosperity
From market potential to policy drive, the domestic nerve intervention industry has shown that it will move towards the golden period of development, but the competition in the high-end field will never be so simple.
Neural intervention is a relatively new technology, but it has been developed in China for many years. At this stage, the main surgeon almost all use foreign products to grow up, even if the heart tends to help domestic brands, it is difficult to accept possible unexpected situations.
A doctor of neurology in a Top Three hospital in Shandong said that his hospital has introduced domestic neuro-interventional products, which are also very cost-effective in terms of price, but there are still a large number of patients who take the initiative to request, or even force the doctors to use those familiar foreign name brands.
And this is also the real dilemma faced by many local enterprises, the recognition in the low-end field can not be perfectly transplanted to the high-end field, the road to market education is still a long way to go.
In view of this phenomenon, a participant at this year’s CMEF gave his views. The logic of selling any product, he says, is to gain trust first. In the field of medical devices, especially high-end products need to rely on “star effect”, and the choice of head hospital is the best market endorsement.
In addition to the favor of capital and policy support, the changes in the market pattern of neural intervention are also inseparable from centralized procurement.
An employee of a domestic mechanical enterprise stated that in the field of neural intervention, the price reduction of centralized procurement is relatively mild. Their products have obtained the qualification for selection in the recent Guangdong Province spring coil centralized procurement, and the presence of domestic brands in the neural intervention market has become increasingly strong.But he also raised his concerns that the current mild decline is not only the result of optimizing centralized procurement rules, but also the fact that neural intervention has some high-end properties. But as more and more entrants enter, the homogenization of products also begins to intensify. In the long run, domestic brands are likely to fall back into the old path of price wars and market competition in the future
He said, “At present, there are not many companies in the field of neural intervention that are really profitable, and it is difficult to support the burn rate of research and development, and it is imperative for everyone to survive first.”
At this year’s CMEF, an exhibitor with neural intervention in the upstream industry chain bluntly stated that according to her understanding, the domestic neural intervention market has started to saturate, the brief dividend period is fading, and the industry reshuffle period is approaching.
She said that the real innovation in the field of neural intervention in China is still very few, and most companies have not got rid of the identity of “assembly plants”, and the quality of their products is basically determined by raw materials. If some core raw material manufacturers stop supply for various reasons in the future, a considerable number of enterprises will directly lose production capacity.
But some practitioners have also raised objections, believing that neural intervention is stepping down from the pinnacle of sophistication. With the continuous upgrading of medical imaging and the deep participation of AI technology, the market for neural intervention will continue to sink in the future, and the share brought by the improved accessibility is a key target that domestic brands need to pay attention to.
The neurointerventional industry is now in a combat-ready phase, and after all the fighting, the last one is the winner.
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
Author：Alesha，saibolan Device
Translated & edited ： Bradyknow
