This year’s sales crown rewritten: photon counting CT flipping market

Photon-counting CT is accelerating the disruption of the domestic imaging market

From January to August this year, the market size of computed tomography (CT) machines in China was about 14.453 billion yuan, ranking first in the eight major imaging markets of ultrasound, CT, MR, DR, DSA, C-arm machines, PET-CT, and SPECT, accounting for 28.07% of the entire medical imaging market and being the most active medical imaging sub market.

In terms of amount, Siemens Healthineers ranks first with a 25.89% market share, moving up two positions compared to its full-year market ranking last year. It can be seen that Siemens Healthineers, GE Healthcare, and United Imaging Healthcare have similar market shares. Since this year, the rapid volume growth of Siemens Healthineers’ photon-counting CT product, NAEOTOM Alpha, has become one of its main growth drivers and a key factor in the increase of Siemens Healthineers’ market share.

The “backbone” of  CT products

In terms of sales volume, from January to August this year, Siemens Healthineers sold approximately 40 units of the SOMATOM Force model CT, making it its best-selling product. NAEOTOM Alpha photon-counting CT has achieved sales of more than ten units, ranking fourth among all Siemens Healthineers product models.

In terms of amount, NAEOTOM Alpha photon-counting CT is second only to SOMATOM Force, with sales exceeding 700 million. They are the two products that contribute the most revenue to Siemens Healthineers.

The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University issued an announcement in April regarding the procurement of X-ray computed tomography equipment (photon-counting CT) through a single-source purchase. The project budget is as high as 70 million yuan, and the unit price has set the highest record within the year. At that time, NAEOTOM Alpha was still the only approved product on the market.
Since the beginning of this year, NAEOTOM Alpha photon-counting
In May, photon-counting CT saw a procurement boom. It successively won bids from four medical institutions: Yunnan Provincial First People’s Hospital, Jiangsu Provincial People’s Hospital, Ningxia Medical University General Hospital, and the Second Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University. The winning bid amounts were 47.9 million yuan, 49.89 million yuan, 43.99 million yuan, and 41.98 million yuan respectively.

It is reported that in the past two months, Siemens Healthineers has won contracts for 7 photon-counting CT scanners in the military medical system, with the purchasers including core hospitals of the Navy, Army, and Air Force.
Overall, the current average price of NAEOTOM Alpha is around 50 million yuan. Compared with the first domestic transaction completed by Jiangsu Provincial Government Hospital in September 2023, which was 59.5 million yuan, there has been a certain decrease.

The “top-selling” models of various brands

From January to August this year, in terms of amount, GE Healthcare ranked second with a market share of 23.62%, second only to Siemens Healthineers. In terms of quantity, GE Healthcare had a market share of 16.35%, ranking third.
In terms of the winning bid amount, the sales volume of GE Healthcare’s new-generation 256-slice 512-layer Apex quantum platform CT (Revolution Apex Expert) exceeded 700 million yuan, ranking first among all models of GE Healthcare in sales.
United Imaging Healthcare accounted for 21.65% of the market value from January to August, ranking third in the market. Its sales volume accounted for 26.39% of the market, ranking first in the market.
United Imaging’s ultra-high-end CT Tianhe 640-uCT960+ has sales of around 500 million yuan, ranking first in its sales contribution. Approximately 40 units of this product have won the bid. Since the beginning of this year, the maximum unit price has been 17.2896 million yuan, and the average price is around 12.2 million yuan.
In addition, United Imaging Healthcare’s new generation 80-slice CT, uCT760, won bids for approximately 70 units, which also made a significant contribution.
Neusoft Medical’s market sales accounted for 17.58% from January to August, ranking second. NeuViz Glory 256-slice wide-body spectral CT has sold over 80 units, with a total sales amount of about 400 million yuan, and it is its main sales model. The model’s largest winning unit price this year was 9.7 million yuan , with an average price of about $6.6 million yuan.
Based on the analysis of various brands and their main sales models this year, photon-counting CT, as the most high-end CT product currently available, has a pivotal impact on the market competition landscape. On August 26 this year, United Imaging and Neusoft simultaneously announced that they had obtained the registration certification for the domestic “first” photon-counting CT. Domestic equipment has advantages in terms of price, localized services, etc., and is expected to accelerate market penetration, while the market competition pattern is facing a new round of restructuring.
Data shows that the global photon-counting CT market size grew from approximately $77 million in 2022 to $184 million in 2024, and is expected to reach $2.786 billion by 2031, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 48.2%.The growth rate of the Chinese market is higher than the global average. With the launch of domestic equipment, demand will be further released.

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 of data and articles: Jointly released by Joinchain Medical Device & Mtech Home
Translated & edited：Bradyknown