Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs, the State Administration of Taxation, and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the “Notice on Adjusting the Catalog of Import Tax Policies for Major Technical Equipment” (hereinafter referred to as the “Notice”), further narrowing the scope of medical equipment that enjoys tax exemption policies.
From the perspective of the industry, in recent years, in order to encourage the development of domestic medical device companies, the state has narrowed the scope of tax reductions for imported medical devices, which has facilitated the entry of domestic medical equipment into hospitals. On December 21, Wang Baoting, vice president of the China Medical Products Regulatory Research Association and director of the Medical Device Supervision Research Professional Committee, also pointed out to the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that the release of relevant policies will raise the price of imported medical devices to a certain extent, which is conducive to the participation of domestic medical devices in competition. But if foreign product quality still dominates, it may still be competitive. Therefore, domestic companies need to continue to increase research and development efforts and build an innovation ecosystem for localization of medical devices.
In fact, high-end medical equipment has the characteristics of high technical barriers and late start in China. However, in recent years, the research and development capabilities of domestic medical device companies have gradually improved, and the pace of domestic substitution is accelerating. In recent years, a number of domestic companies with strong R&D capabilities have gradually emerged in China, represented by Wuhan Half the Sky, Kaili Medical, and Mindray Medical.
Wang Baoting also said that although my country’s medical device industry is currently facing challenges such as high-end medical device technology and key components being stuck, and the country’s centralized procurement of some large medical devices and high-value medical consumables, there are also many opportunities.
“Specifically, for example, policies to encourage the innovative development of medical devices have been and will continue to be introduced, which has injected huge impetus into the healthy and rapid development of my country’s medical device industry; the promulgation and implementation of the new version of the “Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of Medical Devices” will certainly provide new important conditions for the healthy development of my country’s medical device industry; as my country’s economy develops, it will With further acceleration, the income of the general public will further increase, and the demand for medical equipment, especially household medical equipment, will further increase; the development of my country’s medical insurance industry and the level of medical insurance will further improve, and the demand for medical equipment by medical institutions, especially primary medical institutions, will also continue to grow,” Wang Baoting said.
Wang Baoting said that my country’s medical device industry faces far more opportunities than challenges, and the industry is still in a “golden development period.” “The medical device market will further expand, the industry will continue to develop at a high speed, innovative medical devices will emerge at an accelerated pace, the number of mergers and acquisitions of medical device companies will increase, and the average size will gradually expand.”
In the future, with favorable policies, huge market advantages and increasing innovation capabilities, my country’s medical device companies are expected to continue to make breakthroughs in more high-end medical device fields, and the investment value of related companies will also continue to be highlighted.