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.

China CFDA suspends "Electronical Drug Supervision Code" system

In April 2008, China Food and Drug Administration introduced the "Electronical Drug Supervision Code" system. The 'Code' is like the ID of a drug, which tracks the drug in its entire life circle.
The system is operated by third party service provider Ali Health, a daughter company of Alibaba Group.

On 20 Febuary 2016, just a couple of days after the Chinese Lunar New Year, CFDA announced suspension to the system, which has been running for some 8 years already. Ali Health also declared that the operation rights as well as the entire platform have been duly submitted to CFDA.
Reasons of the suspension was not disclosed by CFDA, and suspension may not mean retirement of system. CFDA may probably release new anouncement or publish new regulations soon, yet to be observed.

Chinese Dental Market to Boom

As one of the results of the self-consciousness of pursuing healthier life among Chinese people, more and more people start to pay attention to their dental health. This leads to a boom in the dental market.

There are now 60.000 dental clinics in China, among which more and more are commercialized. Thanks to the extraordinary huge patient pool, the market is believed to expand rapidly in the coming years, thus a lot of investors follow closely after the lucrative market opportunities.

The market size of dental devices in 2015 is ca. 135 billion RMB, as statistics shown. It is reportedly to reach 400 billion RMB by 2020. Some IT companies are also involved into the industry, by offering services like tele-medicine, online payment system, online insurance reimbursement system, patient file, data mining and etc.

Medical device companies will be allowed to sell online in China

The market size of medical devices is ca. 36b Euro in China in 2014, among which 2,25b Euro were sold online. However, medical devices could only be sold through licensed online pharmacies, because online medical device stores are prohibited in China so far. Hence many Chinese medical device marketers acquire online pharmacies in order to walk around the hurdle. 

Things will change in 2015, CFDA will issue licenses to qualified medical device marketers, to enable them to open online stores aiming at medical devices. Device makers and marketers are inspired by the new policy, who predict strong uplift of sales achievement in the coming years.

2014 Q1 Export & Import of Artificial Joints by China

In Q1 2014, Chinese manufacturers exported artificial joints to EU valuing $20,4 million, which represents 91,06% of total export of artificial joints. EU is the largest buyer of artificial joints produced in China.


There are 22 artificial joint manufacturers in China, located in Jiangsu, Beijing, Shanghai, Shaanxi, Tianjin, Hebei, Fujian and Henan. Belgium is the Nr. 1 target market, who imported $16 million from China. While the YOY export to Germany increased 147.16%.

At the mean time China is also an importer of artificial joints, who imported total value of $36 million of artificial joints from EU in Q1 2014, $35,7 million from USA.