Chinesse medical device manufacturers to compete globally

HUAWEI is now absolutely a globally recognized brand name, and definitely a rising star in its cluster. Perhaps within 3-5 years, there will be a new 'LENOVO' or a new 'HUAWEI' in medical device industry as well.

Currently there are around 150.000 medical device manufacturers in China, but 90% of them can only achieve a yearly turnover between RMB 10-20 million. Most of them are producing medical disposables or small devices like thermometer, blood glucose meter, blood pressure monitor, or ECG monitor, many are on OEM basis.

In Chinese hospitals, for equipment like MRI, CT or endoscopy, some 90% are imported products. But the situation starts to change now, slowly. Since2013, we see Chinese manufacturers are releasing new products including ultra-sound scanner, MRI, CT and even PET-CT, as well as bio-chemical analyzer and etc, all under manufacturers' own R&D with self-owned intellectual property rights.

So far these Made in China products can't compete effectively in international market with those global leaders, but a long march to the global med tech market with Chinese domestic market as a starting point is logical and realistic. As long as the Chinese medical device manufacturers accumulate knowledge and experience in product and market development, strengthen the capability in research and innovation and with practical strategy and patience, they will obtain a decent market share not only in Chinese domestic market, but also in international medica device market.

Home use medical devices market in China

As the aged population base is growing rapidly in China, the demand of certain home use medical devices also increases sharply. Younger generation also focuses on prevention rather than treatment, when maintaining physical health is concerned. To fit the daily needs, more and more families in China keep devices like thermometer, blood pressure monitor, glucose meter, oxygen concentrator and etc. at home, young people are more comfortable with wearable devices which is in most cases connected to a smart phone.
 

In the Chinese home use medical device market, there is also a strong market trend of developing and deploying m-health products to replace the conventional products. The ‘Hardware-APP-Cloud’ module is adapted by more and more device manufacturers.
 

The market size of medical device in China is around RMB400 Billion by the end of 2014, but only 14% falls into home use device category. The share of home use devices will for sure expand as long as the strong market demand grows, and we can easily presume, that more and more innovative products will be available in the Chinese market in the coming years.

2016 Chinese M-Health market preview

In the first 3 quarters of 2015, the Chinese m-Health cluster secured ca. $1.1 billion investment, though almost no new products or services were launched other than peripheral products like smart phone APPs, online patient-doctor appointment system, online consulting platform. Wearable device was one of the most discussed topics in 2015.

In 2016, new capitals are still rush entering the Chinese m-Health market, which will turn into one of the driving factors of market boosting. It is estimated that about 85% of m-Health products will be smart phone related, some market players tend to develop online-offline business models, but profitability is a challenge to everyone.

When m-Health first merged in Chinese market, it was regarded as a high-end service for some minorities, but the situation changed drastically as long as more and more patients starts to own a hardware like arm band, glucose meter with blue tooth, or blood pressure monitor with WiFi, or an APP on either iPhone or an Android phone or tablet.

M-Health is so far not efficiently supported by medical insurance system, which could be one of the bottle necks in the Chinese market. Once there are products or services supported by medical insurance, m-Health industry could be a new gold mine in China.