Characteristics, market size and development trend of medical endoscope industry in China

  Medical endoscope is a collection of traditional optics, ergonomics, precision machinery, modern electronics, mathematics, software is equal to one of the detection instruments, through the human body's natural pores, or the small incision made by surgery into the human body, can help doctors observe the X-ray can not show the lesions of human organs.

  Although the medical endoscope industry in China has a relatively short development time, it has developed rapidly from completely relying on imported products to imitating restructuring, learning and innovation. At present, most of China's medical endoscope manufacturing enterprises have the capability of low-end medical endoscope product production and research and development, some large enterprises occupy a certain share in the market of mid-end medical endoscope, and a few enterprises have achieved zero breakthrough in the market segment of partial medical endoscope.

  Medical endoscopy industry characteristics

  With the popularization of medical endoscope technology and the improvement of endoscope processing technology, the application of endoscope has covered many departments such as gastroenterology, respiratory department, general surgery department, otolaryngology department, orthopedic department, urology department and gynecology department, becoming an indispensable medical diagnostic and surgical equipment. In the development of the medical endoscope industry, the following characteristics have emerged:

  First, high technical barriers. The medical endoscope industry is a multi-disciplinary knowledge-intensive high-tech industry with high technical barriers, with products integrating medicine, biological engineering, optics, electronics, precision manufacturing, image processing, medical materials, optical-electromechanical information and other disciplines. Enterprise needs for different departments and different diseases and different diagnostic methods, research and development, production series, different specifications of different products, to meet the requirements of the diagnosis and treatment of medical institutions, medical endoscope products proprietary technology accumulation and the formation of the research and development ability is a long-term process, general enterprise cannot be achieved rapidly in a short time.

  Third, large capital investment. The product of medical endoscope is precise and has higher requirements on processing, inspection equipment and technology. The technology content is relatively high, and the product development cycle is relatively long. From r & d project approval to product marketing, it needs to pass the steps of design, trial production, testing, clinical trial, registration and approval, etc., which generally takes 3-5 years. At present, the medical endoscope industry is in a period of rapid development, and the research and development of new products is the pillar of enterprise development, which requires continuous and high investment in research and development.

  Medical endoscope market size

  In 2015, the market size of medical endoscopy in China was 14.378 billion yuan, with a growth rate of 20.5%. In 2017, the market size grew to 19.508 billion yuan, up 15.3 percent.

  From the perspective of market segmentation, China's medical endoscope market can be divided into four fields: soft mirror products, hard tube mirror products, accessory products and equipment and instruments. In 2017, the market size of the four segments of medical endoscopy in China was relatively small, among which the market share of hard tube endoscopy was the largest, at 27.66%. The annex market share was the second with 27.60%. Equipment market share is 25.37%; Soft mirror has the lowest market share at 19.37%.

  The consumption of medical endoscope in China has obvious regional characteristics due to the imbalance of economic development. In 2017, the demand for medical endoscopes in east China accounted for 32.6 percent of the total domestic demand, the demand for medical endoscopes in north China accounted for 21.4 percent of the total domestic demand, and the market share in south China was 17.4 percent.

  From the perspective of foreign trade, there is still a big gap between the technical level of domestic endoscope products and foreign products, especially in the middle market, the dependence on foreign imported products is still high. In 2017, China imported 4.2 billion yuan of medical endoscopes, mainly from Japan, Germany, the United States, Mexico and other countries and regions. At the same time, the export volume is 602 million yuan, and the export market is widely distributed. It has been exported to many countries and regions in Asia, Europe, Africa and America. Among them, Hong Kong is a big export place, accounting for 22.86% of the total annual export volume.

  Development trend forecast of medical endoscope market

  Medical endoscope plays an outstanding role in saving medical expenses, alleviating surgical pain and reducing surgical intensity, and its advantages have been gradually recognized by both doctors and patients. According to the three-year action plan for strengthening the core competitiveness of the manufacturing industry (2018 ~ 2020) issued by the national development and reform commission in 2017, the industrialization and application of high-end medical devices should be accelerated, with emphasis on supporting the industrialization of innovative medical devices such as pet-mri, ultrasonic endoscope and surgical robot. The policy support will be beneficial to the development of medical endoscope industry towards high technology and industrialization.

  At present, the technical level of medical endoscope industry in China is relatively low. Most of the self-owned brands are mainly medium and low-end products, which have a large gap with imported products. As a result, a considerable number of domestic hospitals have to purchase imported products at a high price, while small and medium-sized hospitals have to give up using them due to limited funds. The utilization rate of endoscope products in small and medium-sized hospitals such as township hospitals is low, and the medical resources are relatively tight. Domestic medical institutions, especially small and medium-sized medical institutions, urgently need domestic medical endoscopes to replace imported products. Therefore, the downstream demand is very strong, which will promote the sustainable development of the medical endoscopes industry.

  On the whole, China's medical endoscope market capacity is large, the industry development prospects are good. With the aggravation of the aging society, the aggravation of environmental problems, the increasing incidence of digestive and respiratory diseases, the demand for endoscopy will gradually increase. From 2019 to 2021, the market size of China's medical endoscope will maintain a rapid growth trend, and the market size is expected to grow to 33.526 billion yuan in 2021, with a growth rate of 13.5%.

  In the future, the development trend of medical endoscope technology mainly includes two directions:

  First, high resolution, miniaturization. The electronic endoscope belongs to the flexible endoscope, which has the advantages of high resolution and high definition. Compared with the rigid endoscope, the electronic endoscope has great advantages in the diagnosis of upper and lower digestive tract and other parts, and has broad development and application space. Although endoscopy has reached megapixels, medical diagnosis and treatment still need higher resolution endoscopy, high resolution is still the focus of endoscopy research. In addition, the size of the probe directly affects the severity of trauma, and miniaturization of the probe can reduce patients' pain and discomfort and accelerate postoperative recovery. Therefore, miniaturization is also an important direction in the future development of medical endoscope technology.

  Second, intelligence. Along with the computer, intelligent equipment, robot, the continuous development of big data and cloud computing industry, as well as the advance of medical technology, the future medical endoscope technology will gradually accommodation with other technologies, developed a computer aided aided diagnosis system, and thus reduce diagnosis dependency of the doctor's experience, improve the diagnostic accuracy. Moreover, with the advantages of precise robot movement and reliable work, endoscopic surgery can be more safe, accurate and convenient, greatly reducing the labor intensity of medical personnel.

  [selected from the development report of China's medical device industry (2018)]