How can China's high-end medical devices get rid of the "foreign monopoly"?

China is the world's second largest medical market, according to the China Pharmaceutical Materials Association medical device branch data, in 2015 the size of the national medical device market reached more than 300 billion yuan, the average growth rate of 20.05 percent.
data, imports of medical devices amounted to US$17,319 million, up 9.81% year-on-year and up 4.49 percentage points. Imports of 43 varieties of medical devices exceeded US$100 million, an increase of 8 varieties over the same period last year. Large high-fine diagnostic devices such as CT, MAGNETIC MRI, nuclear medicine and angioscopic DSA have long been monopolized by foreign giants such as GE General Electric, Philips Philips of the Netherlands, and Siemens of Germany. In 2014, "GPS" the above four categories of products in China's market share reached 83.3%, 85.7%, 87.9% and 91.1%, respectively, in 2015 to continue to maintain a market share of more than 85%.
multinational medical device enterprises to take advantage of the market monopoly position, and constantly raise the price of products and after-sales service. Take the heart stent as an example, domestic and imported stents are basically no different in technology, but there will be a gap of 1-2 times between domestic and imported in terms of tender pricing. Similarly, the domestic tender price of pacemakers is 15%-20% higher than the foreign price. In the after-sales market and consumables sector, the annual warranty price of imported medical devices has soared from 6% of contract costs more than a decade ago to nearly 15% today. Take a foreign brand of MRI, for example, its Chinese market sales price contains a median premium of about 1 million to 2 million yuan per year. High acquisition and maintenance costs put financial pressure on health-care institutions and increase the cost of medical care for patients. In addition, the core technology of high-end medical equipment is mastered in foreign enterprises, and information security such as medical diagnosis, treatment data and patient medical files is also at risk.
"Made in China 2025" has clearly proposed to improve the innovation ability and industrialization level of medical devices, focusing on the development of high-performance medical equipment, and gradually get rid of high-end medical devices dependent on imports. At present, china's overall level of domestic equipment science and technology and developed countries or regions there is a gap of about 10 years, mainly reflected in the small size of enterprises, weak competitiveness, insufficient investment in research and development funds, domestic medical institutions to buy and use domestic equipment policy support is insufficient, the overall national industrial base is still slightly weak. How to quickly catch up with the foreign advanced medical device industry level and scale in the next ten years (2025) to make a breakthrough?
, we should establish a mechanism of collaborative innovation in production, learning, research and medicine. Scientific and technological aggregation and capital concentration are the key to the development of the medical device industry, which requires the three-way docking of international first-class scientific research team, industry leader and high-level project venture capital in order to promote the production of high-end medical devices. Strengthen cooperation with high-level research institutes, apply national scientific research projects to the industry, form complementary advantages and make effective use of resources. Domestic enterprises should also strengthen horizontal alliances, build intellectual property alliances, cross-licensing patents, sharing patents, etc., set the strengths of each family, and jointly improve the overall level of the industry, echoing the national strategy of supply-side reform. We should strongly support qualified domestic enterprises to go out and participate in international mergers and acquisitions, quickly narrow the gap with foreign countries in the field of advantage, and seize the industry lead. In addition, clinical needs are the greatest driving force and source of medical device innovation, from front-line medical personnel to find inspiration and breakthrough is also an important part of medical device innovation and development.
, strengthen the top-level design, around the focus areas to implement breakthroughs. According to the "Made in China 2025" strategy, the focus is on medical robots, wearable medical devices, mobile and remote medical equipment, radiation therapy and other fields to vigorously promote. From the macro level, through the formulation of China's 13th Five-Year Plan for the Innovation and Development of Medical Devices and other industrial development plans, clear development goals and policy measures, seize the frontier areas to explore research, coordinate efforts to accelerate the industrial innovation and scientific and technological progress of domestic medical devices.
, increase investment in research and development and technology reserves. Domestic medical device industry research and development investment due to individual size and other factors only maintained about 3%. According to industry analysis data, the two largest medical device companies in China, Murray and Fish Leap, invested only 910 million and 210 million yuan in research and development in 2014, while GPS invested 8.06 billion, 6.62 billion and 8.44 billion yuan, respectively, in the same period. In 2015, global investment in medical device research and development accounted for 6.35 percent of sales revenue, and even reached 15 percent in developed countries. In terms of the number of patents "GPS" in 2014 the number of patents was 7840, the number of leading medical patents in The United States only 150.
, speed up the implementation of the talent strategy, train a large number of professionals proficient in materials science, engineering design, clinical medicine and other aspects of composite talent, and gradually improve the proportion of clinical engineers in medical and health technical personnel. At the same time, domestic enterprises are encouraged to "introduce, go out" and other forms to strengthen international cooperation to absorb world-class research and development team and talent.
, improve the regulatory policy for innovative medical devices and encourage innovation. The implementation of the special approval procedures for innovative medical devices, with an average processing time of 37 working days, has been more than 60% less than the general product processing time. The use of risk analysis and adjustment of medical device product classification, the mature security risks can be controlled product registration approval decentralized, and constantly improve the relevant measures to solve the problem of approval congestion. Under the premise of ensuring the safety and effectiveness of listed products, more policy preferences are given to innovations with core invention patents and technology at the international leading level in terms of priority approval, patent protection, preferential subsidies, etc.
, conform to the development trend of medical and health management informationization and networking. Innovation of China's high-end medical device development, breaking the monopoly situation of foreign giants should attach great importance to the "Internet plus" thinking, through the integration of resources, cultivate medical devices and medical services in the field, including medical devices and the Internet, data processing centers and independent software, clinical samples and personalized products and other shared medical treatment. China has the world's largest population base, in the process of innovative medical devices to grasp the use of big data, will become a domestic high-end medical devices unique advantages. (China Daily)