Document issued in one place: Gene sequencer speeds up import restrictions

1.

In terms of national policies, the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for 2017 put forward: “Develop a batch of high-end and mainstream medical devices with high import dependence and urgent clinical needs, as well as intelligent, mobile, and networked products suitable for the grassroots, and launch a batch of domestically-based products.

In terms of local policies, the “Announcement of the List of Imported Products of Provincial Health Institutions in 2021” issued by the Guangdong Health Commission this year stated that only 46 types of medical equipment can be purchased and imported, which is a significant reduction compared to 132 types in 2019.

This series of actions all show that domestic medical equipment is supported in hospitals, and import substitution is accelerating.

From the perspective of subdivisions, low-end equipment and reagents have a higher degree of localization, and foreign brands have a lower share.

2.

The gene sequencer mainly uses the analysis of blood or saliva to determine the complete gene sequence to predict the type and possibility of suffering from diseases, explain individual behavior characteristics and rationality of behavior, and other research, screen out individual disease genes, which is useful for early prevention and Clinical treatment is of great significance.

Therefore, in recent years, the state has increased its policy support for the research and development of related industries, and at the same time encouraged more companies to deploy to the upstream instrument end.

The 14th Five-Year Plan released this year also clearly requires that we must fight for key core technologies and develop frontier medical fields including artificial intelligence, life and health, brain science, and key core technologies in the fields of medicine and medical equipment.

With such strong policy support, despite the difficulties of high cost, high technical difficulty, and insufficient technical personnel, a number of gene sequencer manufacturers in China have gradually emerged and occupied a certain market share.

3.

However, from the perspective of the company’s product layout, except that MGI is the only domestic high-throughput gene sequencer that can independently develop and mass-produce clinical-grade gene sequencers, most companies mainly adopt OEM and cooperative research and development methods.

Take Sichuan as an example.

In contrast, in the past two years, the technology and performance of domestic gene sequencers have matured day by day, and sequencers developed by MGI and other companies have achieved technological iterations and exported overseas.
Under this circumstance, the gene sequencer appeared on the newly-added purchase list in Sichuan, and the reason was that the domestic equipment "stability, convenience, accuracy, etc.
are not as good as imported equipment", and the reasons behind it are worth thinking about.

It can be seen that even if Guangdong issued a document recently to fully support the import substitution of gene sequencers, it will still take time for this category to complete a full range of domestic substitution when foreign brands occupy most of the market.

However, this is not a reminder for medical device companies: in the future development, companies still need to continue to make efforts in independent research and development after the initial cooperative introduction and cooperative research and development, to break the "stuck neck" of core technologies.
Situation, thereby enhancing its core competitiveness and opening up the localized industrial ecological chain.
On the other hand, we must actively respond to future developments in accordance with local policies.