Now China is already an industrial and technological powerhouse. But in fact, at the level of medical technology, my country has been suppressed and blocked by foreign countries.
At the most serious time, more than eighty percent of the medical devices used in Chinese hospitals came from abroad, and we simply did not have the ability to design and produce domestic medical devices on a large scale.
After several years of development, China's domestic medical devices are enough to scare Europe. So what's going on here?
From an objective point of view, medical devices have always been China's technological shortcomings. After all, these medical devices require a relatively high level of technology.
After the reform and opening up, we have come into contact with the first-line medical devices in the international community, and we have also seen how big the gap between these medical devices used in China and foreign medical devices is.
Therefore, in order to be responsible for the life and health of the people, we began to spend a lot of money to import medical devices from abroad.
In some cases, the state will even provide targeted policy subsidies for foreign medical companies. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this, and this is also to be able to better take responsibility for the lives and health of the people.
But this has also had a bad effect. At the beginning of this century, more than 80% of the thousands of NMR machines in the country were foreign.
China's medical device market is divided between foreign companies including General Electric, Philips and Siemens.
At the beginning of this century, these three medical device manufacturers accounted for 80% of the Chinese market share. Some traditional medical device manufacturers in China can only share the remaining 20% of the market share.
Moreover, for those large hospitals, they will not buy domestic medical devices at all. They would rather spend more money on foreign medical equipment than on domestic ones. Even in 2018, the situation did not change significantly.
In 2018, imported products accounted for 70% of the market share of high-end medical devices sold in the Chinese market, while domestic medical devices accounted for only 30%.
Medical devices are our huge shortcoming, mainly because these medical devices are too difficult to produce and have too high technical requirements. Even if we have enough scientific research strength, it is difficult for China's domestic medical device technology to reach the world's advanced level in a short period of time.
The use of some medical devices with relatively backward technology means that it will reduce the efficiency of diagnosis and treatment for ordinary people when they see a doctor.
In addition, foreign medical devices do have technical and cost advantages. Therefore, over time, the number of Chinese companies willing to continue to invest in the field of medical devices is not large, which has caused us as an industrial and technological power, but most of the medical devices used in our hospitals still have to rely on imports.
However, after 2018, the situation has changed. Because foreign medical devices will make it difficult for Chinese nationals to see a doctor.
IIThe cost of using medical devices in foreign countries is too high
After 2018, the medical device problem faced by China has undergone fundamental changes. That is, we were surprised to find that the large number of foreign medical devices now will lead to the difficulty of Chinese patients to see a doctor.
After all, these foreign medical devices are relatively too expensive, and their high standards will cause a series of problems.
For example, the cost of using these medical devices is not included in the medical insurance, and if patients use these foreign advanced medical devices when they see a doctor, they will have to pay a huge amount of cost of use.
In addition, with the continuous development of the economy and society, the average life expectancy of the people has increased. But an increase in life expectancy also means an increase in the number of elderly people who may suffer from a variety of underlying diseases.
Therefore, the demand for medical treatment is also growing, so it is not cost-effective to continue to purchase foreign medical equipment on a large scale, both from the perspective of economy and medical efficiency.
And at that time, China had no technology and no funds to develop medical devices, but now China is the world's second largest economy, and we have a large number of scientific research talents and enough scientific research strength to invest in the development of medical devices.
In 2019, the state put forward a new policy to support and encourage the innovation and development of domestic medical device enterprises, and to provide more policy support for Chinese enterprises.
The introduction of a series of new policies has brought greater development space and development opportunities to China's local medical device companies.
At the same time, the help provided by the state to these enterprises is comprehensive, in addition to giving money to policies, and even special land grants to allow these medical device manufacturers to set up special device research and development bases.
For example, Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, China, has established a state-level medical device industrial park, as long as the medical device enterprises settled in this industrial park, they can get a lot of policy support.
After just a few years of development, these medical companies in China have achieved a series of technological breakthroughs, and have also been able to produce some medical devices and tools that are close to first-class or even reach first-class. Therefore, the share of Chinese domestic enterprises in China's medical device market is also increasing.
Now the market share of China's medical devices has approached 50%, up from 30% in 2018** nearly 20%.
Although about half of the market share is controlled by foreign medical device companies, objectively speaking, China's medical devices have also made great progress.
Even now Chinese medical device companies are enough to export Chinese technical products to foreign countries.
Because compared with foreign medical devices, China's medical devices have a similar level, but the cost is significantly lower. This is more in line with the needs of those third world countries and developing countries.
These countries have limited access to medical care, so it is difficult to address many diseases. And these countries are facing much the same problems as China did 30 years ago.
They themselves lack the ability to produce medical devices, and they do not have so much money to buy foreign medical devices. As a result, there are many patients who could have received **, but they died because they could not have received better medical care.
Now, Chinese companies are willing to offer their products at a lower price, or even half of the medical devices in Europe and the United States.
Even if these products may be a little behind in terms of technical standards, they are still enough to meet daily needs.
Therefore, China's medical equipment exports have now become a trump card that makes the export of medical equipment in Europe and the United States tremble. China's medical devices are backed by China, the world's largest industrial country, and the advantage is too great.
As long as they can produce enough medical devices that are marketable and technically reliable, they can rely on the rapid development of China's industry and quickly occupy the world market.
That's what China has been doing for the past 20 years, and it's all the secret to how quickly we've become a world-class industrial powerhouse.
But that doesn't mean you can sit back and relax right now. Although China's local medical device technology has developed rapidly in recent years, those local medical device companies have also regained some market share.
But on the whole, the most high-end medical devices are still very dependent on imports. The top medical devices in all large hospitals in our country are made in foreign countries.
Over time, this can lead to a serious loss of funds. Therefore, in the foreseeable future, China's medical device design and production enterprises should not only focus on those low-level medical devices, and it is not enough to occupy the low-level market.
They also need to invest more money and R&D efforts in tackling the top medical devices.
And now, China's medical companies are indeed doing this. For example, China's medical device giant, Mindray Medical, as one of the main manufacturers of domestic medical equipment in China, will spend about 8% to 11% of its annual annual revenue on the research and development of new medical devices.
This percentage of research funding is very rare in the whole world. The vast majority of tech companies only bring 3% of their revenue
To 5% is used for research and development of typing technology. And Chinese tech companies spend almost twice as much on R&D as the world average for R&D. Then, with such a huge investment, it is impossible not to achieve results.
Therefore, it will not take long for my country's domestic medical device market to develop by leaps and bounds again, and our dependence on foreign medical devices can also be perfectly solved. The people of the country should have enough confidence in this.
A large number of domestic medical devices have gradually replaced foreign medical devices, which is also beneficial to China in the long run. In the future, the cost of medical treatment for Chinese people will be further reduced, because the price of medical equipment produced by us will not be too high.
Moreover, many medical device research and development are state-owned scientific research units or semi-state-owned scientific research enterprises, although the equipment they develop still has to make money, but the relevant departments of the state will also try their best to reduce the price of these industries.
Moreover, it is all enterprises in their own countries that are engaged in products, and it will not be too difficult to negotiate them. Then the use of domestic medical devices will most likely be included in the reimbursement list.
In recent years, there have indeed been some news reports that it is difficult to see a doctor in China. All kinds of foreign medical devices are popular in the Chinese market, which directly raises the cost of medical treatment for Chinese citizens.
However, with the continuous development of China's domestic drug and medical device system, these problems will be solved.
Maybe in another year, China's medical device companies will begin to fight a tug-of-war with medical devices from Europe and the United States in the international market. And in this possible tug-of-war, Chinese companies have a good chance of winning.