Pacemaker market: foreign goods dominate the world of goods just starting

Business Club September 9 hearing If all localization is implemented, it is estimated that the cost of each pacemaker can be controlled within 2,000 yuan and the selling price can be between 3,000 and 4,000 yuan. This kind of pacemaker product certainly has a huge space for development in the market.

According to information from the Ministry of Health, there are more than half a million people in China who die of sudden death due to atrial fibrillation (cardiac sudden death) every year. On average, 1500 people die of atrial fibrillation every day. In fact, the most effective way to control sudden cardiac death is to implant a pocket-sized electronic treatment device, a pacemaker, directly into the patient's chest. The device can monitor the patient's heart rate 24 hours a day. Once the patient's heart rate is abnormal (too fast or too slow), the pacemaker will automatically correct the abnormal heart rate in more than 10 seconds through the doctor's pre-set treatment plan. To make it back to normal beating. The success rate can reach 100%.

There is a big gap in our market

According to the sample survey results of relevant departments in rural and urban areas of several populous provinces in China, it is estimated that there are approximately 540,000 newly-increased atrial fibrillation patients or heart failure patients every year in China. At least one half of them need to install pacemakers. However, in fact, in the past few years, only an average of 20,000 to 30,000 cardiac patients each year installed cardiac pacemakers, which is 1/9 of the total number of pacemakers that need to be installed. In recent years, with the increase of national income and improvement of economic conditions, sales of cardiac pacemakers have doubled from previous years. According to the statistics of China's pharmaceutical business sector, a total of cardiac pacemaker products were sold in China in 2009. 48,992, of which only more than 5,000 domestic pacemakers, imported products still occupy an absolute dominant position. Because here involves the interests of hospitals, imported pacemaker profits, and the relatively cheap domestic pacemaker profit margin is less than imported goods, the two sides are more willing to use imported pacemakers. Therefore, on the whole, the pacemaker market in China is still dominated by foreign goods.

In fact, the sudden profits of imported pacemaker products have long been an open secret in China's medical device import and export departments and hospitals. According to industry sources, in the developed countries in Europe and America, the current average price of each pacemaker is between 2000 and 2500 US dollars (including implant surgery costs), and many European welfare countries such as Sweden, the United Kingdom, Switzerland In Germany, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, and other implanted pacemakers can reimburse all (or part) of the cost, so in developed countries, basically all heart patients who should have pacemakers installed pacemakers. In the past, our country was limited to many factors such as the lag of economic development and the incomplete coverage of medical insurance. Most patients with AF or severe heart failure patients would not actively request the installation of a pacemaker. According to statistics from the Ministry of Health quoted above, patients with sudden cardiac death due to atrial fibrillation in our country do not have pacemakers installed. If they can install a pacemaker in advance, they may not die.

Only 50,000 patients in our country had a pacemaker installed last year. This figure shows that more than 90% of patients with severe atrial fibrillation in China have not yet installed a pacemaker, a life-saving medical device. There are two reasons: First, economic factors. According to sources in the relevant departments, the average sales price of hospitals imported from dual-chamber pacemakers is 40,000 to 50,000 yuan, while the average price of single-chamber pacemakers is also about 20,000 yuan. This price seems to be more expensive for most working-class patients, let alone rural patients. In fact, according to the information released by China's pharmaceutical and commerce sector, the largest number of imported cardiac pacemakers are used in coastal economically developed areas, while less developed areas in mainland China use less imported pacemaker products. Of course, the same is true for the sales of other imported medical device products. This reflects the imbalance between the economic development of the eastern and western regions of our country and the "differentiation" of medical treatment. Second, patients lack medical basic knowledge and lack of trust between doctors and patients. According to the perspective of a cardiologist at the Beijing Hospital, the proportion of heart pacemakers in China is far lower than that of Western developed countries. The reason is that patients lack relevant medical knowledge. The vast majority of heart disease people in China mistakenly believe that they only need to eat. Medicines like “ketamine” can prevent heart attacks. It is difficult for them to accept a pacing device on a thorax. For example, some thoracic physicians in some large hospitals in Beijing often experience cases in which cardiac patients and their families (actually some people are not financially difficult) refuse to install a pacemaker. In Western developed countries, as long as doctors ask patients to install pacemakers, basically all patients (and their families) will accept the doctor's advice. After all, doctors know more about the severity of illness than patients themselves.

Many heart disease patients in our country may have private thoughts, "The doctor asked me to install a pacemaker can take a large rebate," This reflects the serious lack of mutual trust between doctors and patients in our country. Of course, there are heart attackers who worry about whether or not the pacemaker is harmful to the body and refuse to install it. However, in Europe and the United States, implantable electronic device products for pacemakers have been used for nearly half a century, and few have heard of any side effects. . Relevant departments estimate that there are 700,000 types of pacemaker products sold in the international market at present. Although China is the world’s most populous country, and there are so many patients died of cardiac diseases every year, the pacemakers are actually installed. There are only tens of thousands of people in the district (actual pacemaker sales in China last year were only 1/14 of global pacemaker sales).

Development prospects can be expected

According to the information of the health department, over the past 20 years, due to the continuous improvement of the living standards of our country’s citizens and the dramatic changes in the dietary structure, the intake of high-fat, high-protein and high-calorie foods has become the most important factor affecting the national disease . Long-term intake of high-fat foods is a major factor in the induction of heart disease. The incidence of heart failure and atrial fibrillation, which we rarely heard of in China decades ago, has increased several times compared with decades ago. This situation is very similar to the incidence of diabetes in China, another modern civilization. Atrial fibrillation is a dangerous disease that can lead to sudden death. Only the installation of a pacemaker can prevent the sudden death of the patient. So, as a pacemaker is an implantable medical device product that has been on the market for nearly half a century, why is the localization process so slow? Comprehensive domestic experts reported that the core components of cardiac pacemakers are in their microprocessor integrated circuits. Naturally, foreign manufacturers are strictly confidential and will not be easily transferred to other countries. The ASIC circuit in the microprocessor can determine the abnormal heart rate of the patient and send a corresponding electrical stimulation signal in time to correct this heart rate and return it to normal heartbeat. It has been learned recently that electronic technology researchers from universities such as Xi'an Jiaotong University and China University of Science and Technology have successfully developed localized ASIC microprocessor integrated circuit products several years ago. When they are installed on pacemakers, they can correct abnormal heart rate. Effect. It is said that the cost of such a localized ASIC integrated block is only 500 yuan, if all domestically implemented (provided that the need for large-scale production), coupled with the pacemaker's hardware and long-lived batteries and other supporting components, it is estimated that The cost of each domestic pacemaker can be controlled within 2,000 yuan and the selling price can be between 3,000 and 4,000 yuan. This kind of pacemaker product certainly has a huge space for development in the market.

According to domestic news, the import price of pacemakers is at most only 5,900 to 6,500 yuan (including customs duties), but the hospital sells patients at prices ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 yuan. The pocket naturally speaks for itself. If the price of cardiac pacemakers in China can be reduced to a reasonable price acceptable to the people (that is, 4,000 yuan per RMB or less), it is certain that the number of heart failure patients and atrial fibrillation patients who install cardiac pacemakers every year is at least several times the current number. . The availability of cheap, domestically-available pacemaker products will be able to break the dominance of import pacemakers. The good news is that the domestic pacemaker has taken a solid step. According to relevant departments, several years ago, a new plant for the production of cardiac pacemakers, Shaanxi Qinming Medical Instrument Co., Ltd., has been established in the high-tech area of ​​Baoji City, Shaanxi Province, with a total investment of 100 million yuan. It is expected that the number of pacemakers per year will be 6,000. Hangzhou introduced a full set of Spanish technology, in the Hangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone to build a cardiac pacemaker production company (company name: Hangzhou can lovely heart Medical Devices Co., Ltd.), the annual output of pacemakers is scheduled to be 1,000. It is reported that a few years ago, several domestic companies including Shanghai and Beijing and other major cities used imported components to assemble cardiac pacemakers. However, due to factors such as poor sales, these pacemaker manufacturers have now stopped production. Two medical device companies in Shaanxi and Hangzhou finally took the first step on the pacemaker's localization. It is believed that as the output of domestically-made pacemakers will continue to increase year by year and prices will decline further, and scientific research personnel in universities and colleges will actively participate in research and development work, China will break through the technical bottlenecks of pacemaker production and make this product truly localized.