Insight into the logic of the industry - new opportunities in the field of ophthalmic medicine and equipment under the rush of capital

China is one of the countries with the largest number of blind and visually impaired patients in the world, with hundreds of millions of patients suffering from various eye diseases
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With the acceleration of the aging process of society, the cost of prevention and treatment of ophthalmic diseases in China will continue to increase, and the market potential is huge
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As a veritable "golden track", ophthalmology has always been the focus of capital
.
Unfortunately, no matter in the field of ophthalmic drugs or ophthalmic medical devices, domestic innovative companies with global competitiveness still need to be further cultivated
.
What are the current segmentation opportunities in the field of ophthalmic medical devices? What pain points still exist? What is the future evolution trend? The authors of this article sought to find answers to these questions through research and interviews with industry stakeholders
.
On the ophthalmology track, capital is running wild
.
Since 2021, top investment institutions such as Northern Lights Ventures, Hillhouse Ventures, Sequoia China, Legend Capital, Yuansheng Ventures, Tencent, Xiaohongshu, Aier Ophthalmology, Sunshine Life, Sugao New Ventures, etc.
The strategic investment departments or industrial capital of giant companies such as investment groups are all deployed in the field of ophthalmology
.
According to statistics, from 2021 to the end of February 2022, a total of 51 financing events occurred in the primary market of ophthalmology in China, 40 companies received financing, involving nearly 100 investment institutions, and the total amount of funds attracted exceeded 8 billion yuan/RMB, a record a new historical record
.
In the secondary market, High Vision Medical, Clear Medical, and Huaxia Ophthalmology have submitted prospectuses one after another.
Zhaoke Ophthalmology, Chaoju Ophthalmology, Eagle Eye Technology, and Mingyue Lens have successfully IPOed, which has driven the popularity of ophthalmology for a while
.
1 Over 8 billion yuan in financing a year As a field with both medical and consumer attributes, the ophthalmology track has begun to run out a number of high-quality innovative companies, allowing capital to have more target choices, which is the core of capital entering the game The reason is that ophthalmology belongs to the three-in-one medical track of "drugs + devices + services", with a market size of nearly 200 billion yuan
.
In the past year, investment institutions have invested more than 8 billion yuan, starting a new round of financing boom
.
From the overall situation, the number of ophthalmic service financing events accounts for about 10% of the entire industry, and the other 90% is concentrated in the field of ophthalmic medicine and equipment
.
Capital's attention to innovative ophthalmic medical devices has reached an unprecedented height
.
Ophthalmology service is the first field of the ophthalmology track, and many regional leaders have formed, such as Aier Ophthalmology, Chaoju Ophthalmology, Huaxia Ophthalmology, He's Ophthalmology, Purui Ophthalmology and other companies.
These companies have generally encountered business growth bottleneck
.
Therefore, from the perspective of investment value, the field of ophthalmic medicine and equipment has become a good direction for capital in the next period of time
.
On the one hand, the mid-to-high-end market of ophthalmology is mainly dominated by foreign companies, and domestic substitution has great opportunities
.
Taking ophthalmic drugs as an example, imported drugs account for more than 50% of the ophthalmic drugs in hospitals.
The top four in the market are Novartis in Switzerland, Santian in Japan, URSAPHARM in Germany and Shenyang Xingqi ophthalmic drugs
.
It can be seen that domestic ophthalmic companies only occupy one seat
.
On the other hand, there are still gaps in treatment science and technology at the supply side of ophthalmic medical devices
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For example, cataract, the leading cause of blindness in the world, is the eye disease with the highest incidence among the elderly in China, but there is currently no drug to cure it, and patients are mainly treated by surgery and medical devices
.
This makes ophthalmology-related diseases have a huge market demand for better drugs and better medical devices
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In addition, favorable policies related to ophthalmology are continuously introduced
.
In January this year, the National Health and Health Commission issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for National Eye Health (2021-2025)", which pointed out the establishment and improvement of the national-regional-provincial-city-county five-level ophthalmic medical service system, and optimized the layout of medical resources.
, strengthen the establishment and construction of ophthalmology department of general hospitals above the second level, and make up for the shortcomings of ophthalmology department and its supporting disciplines
.
This means that medical institutions will pay more attention to and purchase ophthalmology-related medical equipment
.
More importantly, there is still market space and opportunities for the birth of leading companies in the field of ophthalmic medical devices
.
Investors prefer areas that have a margin of safety while ensuring high growth and long-term consistent profitability
.
For example, the continuous rise of Aier Eye's share price in the past ten years is largely due to its ability to maintain a growth of more than 30% in net profit every year
.
The reason for this growth is the steady release of market demand for ophthalmology, which also means that there will be enough market increments for new leading companies in ophthalmology in the future
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In a word, with the tide of domestic substitution and strong demand from the supply side, as well as the huge potential for the birth of leading enterprises, China's ophthalmology industry has entered a new stage of development in the field of pharmaceutical device research and development
.
2 Originality is the key to breakthrough of ophthalmic drugs ●If domestic innovative companies do not solve basic technical problems quickly, the field will still be "stuck" by foreign companies in the future ●The research and development of innovative ophthalmic drugs is a difficult and correct thing, but in the long run Look, it will definitely bring rich returns to enterprises and investors.
At present, the market space of ophthalmic pharmaceuticals in China is about 20 billion yuan, accounting for 10% of the entire ophthalmic market, which is not much
.
The core reason is that the research and development of ophthalmic drugs is difficult, and there is still a high elimination rate after the drug is approved for marketing, which prompts many pharmaceutical companies to focus on external introduction, and rarely develop true first-incl ass drugs on their own.

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Investing in the field of ophthalmology requires an in-depth understanding of ophthalmology-related diseases
.
If the ophthalmic diseases are divided by parts, they can be classified into two categories: anterior eye diseases and posterior eye diseases
.
Among them, anterior diseases include cataract, dry eye, myopia, glaucoma, conjunctivitis, uveitis, etc.
; posterior diseases include wet macular degeneration, diabetic maculopathy, posterior uveitis,
etc.
Each disease related to ophthalmology can even be counted as a separate track
.
Focusing on these common eye diseases, three mainstream directions have been formed in the field of ophthalmic drugs: one is traditional drugs, that is, small-molecule chemical drugs; the other is macromolecular biological drugs, and the ophthalmic drugs currently under development in China Mainly; the third is gene and cell therapy emerging in recent years
.
Different medicines differ in how they are administered
.
Macromolecular drugs and gene or cell-based drugs are generally administered by injection, and small-molecule drugs are generally administered locally or orally as eye drops
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The research and development of therapeutic drugs for the five mainstream diseases of dry eye, refractive error, fundus vascular disease, cataract, and glaucoma is the focus of capital attention, and many large pharmaceutical companies are also deploying in this field
.
Taking dry eye disease as an example, the eye disease has the largest number of people and has a large market space, attracting pharmaceutical companies such as Hengrui Medicine, Xingqi Eye Medicine, CMS, Ou Kang Vision and other pharmaceutical companies to develop drug research and development for this indication, including generic drugs and innovative drugs.

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Therefore, for innovative companies in ophthalmic drug research and development, ingenuity is the key to their breakthrough
.
Judging from the layout and progress of the drug research and development pipelines of innovative companies that have recently received financing, the research and development of new ophthalmic drugs is already at an important node
.
In January this year, all products of Cloud Dispatch Pharma, which received US$130 million in financing, are self-developed and have global rights and interests.
Major eye diseases such as fundus and glaucoma
.
Kangrui Bio, which announced the completion of the A+ round of financing at the end of January, currently has a Category 1 new drug pipeline that is about to complete Phase I clinical trials in China and the United States, and is conducting IIT research for multiple indications in China.
It is expected to carry out two different adaptations by the end of the year.
A Sino-US Phase II clinical trial in the United States
.
It is reported that the new drug is expected to become the world's first drug in the form of eye drops to treat ocular neovascular diseases
.
Another new drug development pipeline for the prevention and treatment of cataracts has entered the preclinical trial stage and is expected to submit an IND application by the end of the year
.
Sequoia China’s bet on Neufos, its core product NR082, is China’s first ophthalmic in vivo gene therapy drug licensed for clinical trials.
The Phase I clinical trial will complete the first patient enrollment and administration in June 2021
.
The current pipeline of Jimu Bio, invested by Tencent, includes 3 introduced products in phase III clinical trials, which are respectively used for the treatment of uveitis macular edema, progressive myopia and presbyopia in children
.
3 Capital favors two major ophthalmic medical device fields The two major sectors of ophthalmic OCT and color pupil are the key segments of recent capital bets, and orthokeratology lenses also have huge opportunities in the medium and long term.
Ophthalmic medical devices mainly include ophthalmic OCT (optical phase optics).
tomography), ICL (phakic intraocular lens), IOL (intraocular lens), orthokeratology lens (OK lens), ultra-wide-angle fundus camera, phakic cutting machine, femtosecond laser, ophthalmic surgical microscope, optical biology Measuring instruments, invisible/form/eyes/mirrors (including color pupils) and other subdivisions
.
In terms of financing frequency, OCT and color pupils in ophthalmology are the most popular targets of capital recently; intraocular lenses have entered the centralized procurement, ultra-wide-angle fundus cameras, ophthalmic surgical microscopes and other fields are already in the red ocean, which is the main reason for the weak capital attention.

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Ophthalmology OCT Ophthalmology OCT is an authoritative examination equipment for clinical diagnosis and treatment of fundus diseases.
It can display the images of retinal lesions of users.
It has been used in ophthalmology clinics since the early 1990s.
Three generations of technology change
.
At present, the mid-to-high-end market of ophthalmic OCT in China is almost monopolized by imported products, such as Zeiss and Heidelberg in Germany, Topcon in Japan, Optovue in the United States, etc.
There is a big gap between domestic products and imported products in terms of performance parameters
.
The traditional OCT operation steps are complicated, and the interpretation relies on high-level professional doctors, which limits the popularization and application of OCT in the grass-roots level
.
Therefore, domestic substitution and research and development of products with better performance have become opportunities for innovative companies in the future
.
Color pupil Color pupil has good consumption attributes due to its good decorative effect, so it has become a sweet pastry pursued by capital
.
In terms of market space, according to the forecast of Mob Research Institute, the market size of China's color pupil industry will reach 50 billion yuan in 2025
.
At the same time, the total number of color pupil-related companies in my country has exceeded 1,800, but no leading companies have emerged.
Once a certain brand can take the lead in breaking through, it will occupy a good market space
.
It is worth noting that Color Pupil is a track with a high repurchase rate, and the occupation of users' minds is very important
.
According to the data of the Prospective Research Institute, the repurchase rate of this category in 2020 will reach 30% to 50%
.
In the medical field, centralized collection with volume brings uncertainty
.
For example, in the centralized procurement of intraocular lenses carried out in Guangdong in 2021, the price of intraocular lenses will drop by up to 90%, and the entire track will be greatly affected
.
The special feature of color pupil is that it is almost immune to centralized procurement, so the certainty of growth is very good, and the follow-up will still be the focus of capital
.
Orthokeratology Another ophthalmic device with "collective immunity" is the orthokeratology lens (commonly known as the OK lens)
.
OK mirror is a very good segment of ophthalmic equipment, with high unit price, high gross profit, high viscosity, and continuous increase in penetration rate
.
Due to the high barriers of OK mirrors, there are currently only about 10 companies in China that have approved their products, and there are 4 domestic brands, namely OPCOM, Aibo Nord, Hengtai Optical, and Tianjin Shidajia
.
For latecomers, the main competition is technical strength and product advantages, as well as the time window for certification
.
In terms of layout, Tupai Medical, which has received financing twice a year, focuses on high-end ophthalmic OCT products and has launched two ophthalmic OCT products named "Beiming·Kun" and "Yaoguang·Xing"
.
The former has a frequency sweep capability of 400,000 times, and the scanning length of a single imaging reaches 24mm
.
Zhenghong Technology, which received financing in January this year, focuses on the research and development and production of optical imaging equipment with ophthalmic OCT as the core.
The anterior segment OCT products developed by it can meet the measurement of various parameters of the anterior segment.
Low cost and other advantages
.
Bigway Medical, which completed financing at the end of last year, mainly focuses on ophthalmic image AI analysis and auxiliary diagnosis system.
The ophthalmic OCT image auxiliary diagnosis software MIAS 3000 developed by it has started the third-class medical device registration application
.
In terms of product system, Tiluo Medical, which completed the B round financing of 420 million yuan last year, currently has 7 Class III medical device registration certificates, covering the entire product line of invisible/visible/eyes/glasses
.
In addition, Tilo Group has the industry's unique 7-color and pearlescent film registration certificate
.
MOODY, which has completed a financing of over 1 billion yuan, chose to use etafilconA as the core material of the lens, which is a special material for sensitive eyes, and added hyaluronic acid and PVP factors on the basis of the lens, and used the sandwich color lock technology in the process
.
4 Where is the future? In the field of ophthalmic medical devices, there are still opportunities for domestic replacement of implantable products mainly based on intraocular lenses.
Independent research and development of high-end ophthalmic medical equipment and core optoelectronic devices will be the investment trend in the medium and long term.
Ophthalmic pharmaceutical field The investment will focus on the two sub-sectors of drug delivery system and gene therapy.
China's ophthalmology track has always lacked high-quality targets, which is evident from the popularity of high-quality ophthalmology companies in the secondary market
.
In January 2017, after the "first stock of eye-optical technology" OPCOM was listed on the A-share market, it has made great progress in the secondary market.
Last year, its market value reached 80 billion yuan at its peak, and its stock price rose more than 50 times
.
In July 2020, ophthalmology innovative drug company Ou Kang Vision went public in Hong Kong, and the stock rose by as much as 152% on the day of listing
.
In December 2021, Mingyue Lens was listed on the A-share Growth Enterprise Market.
On the first day of listing, it soared by 134%, with a market value of nearly 10 billion yuan
.
After the optimism in the secondary market was transmitted to the primary market, investment and financing in the ophthalmology track became more and more frequent
.
However, it cannot be ignored that there is still a huge gap between domestic enterprises and foreign giants, and they are generally in a relatively weak state in terms of technical strength and industrial experience
.
Taking the R&D and manufacturing of ophthalmic medical equipment as an example, this segment is a typical track of "easy entry, difficult to master", "low-end low threshold, high-end high threshold"
.
Therefore, ophthalmic pharmaceutical equipment companies should find an accurate positioning and the direction they are good at, so as to carry out deep technical cultivation
.
The advent of the wind has led to the emergence of more and more innovative ophthalmic companies.
In the future, these companies are bound to join the global market competition and fight head-on with international giants
.
Therefore, in the current stage of accelerated growth, domestic ophthalmic innovation companies need to make good moves and practice basic skills, so as to usher in explosive growth in the expected time, so as to benefit hundreds of millions of patients with ophthalmic diseases and contribute to the industry Bring more value increment
.
(author unit: arterial network)