Health & Beauty

With the continuous advancement of centralized procurement of medical consumables, the concentration of the orthopedic market segment has increased significantly, accelerating the reshuffle. At present, orthopaedic medical device companies are actively seeking breakthroughs and striving to seize the incremental market. Many companies are turning their attention to the upstream raw material field.

Orthopedic implants have high requirements on the biological and mechanical properties of raw materials, and the excellent degree of material properties directly affects the final performance of the implant. Thanks to the continuous progress of material science, the raw materials of orthopedic implants have developed from ordinary metals in the early stage to metal alloys, ceramics, polymer materials and other types. At the same time, the use of orthopedic implants has gradually developed from structural replacement to Functional replacement, and is progressing toward higher-level therapeutic goals. It can be seen that for orthopedic medical device companies extending upstream of the industrial chain, material innovation is one of the key areas of their development.

The market prospect of orthopedic implant raw materials is good

Biomedical materials are materials used to diagnose, treat, repair or replace damaged tissues and organs, or enhance their functions. Wait.

In recent years, the global biomedical material industry has developed rapidly. According to the data released by Markets and Markets, an American market research and consulting company, in 2019, the global biomedical materials market size reached 105.18 billion US dollars; it is expected that by 2024, the market size will increase to 206.64 billion US dollars, with a compound annual growth rate of 14.5 %. Among them, the market share of the orthopedic biomedical material segment is outstanding.

Age is one of the important factors affecting the development of human bone diseases. With the increase of age, the bone repair ability of the human body gradually weakens. At present, the aging of the global population is increasing, and the orthopaedic medical market has huge potential. According to data released by Evaluate MedTech, a medical industry research organization, in 2020, the global orthopaedic medical market size is about 36.5 billion US dollars; it is expected that by 2024, the market size will reach 47.1 billion US dollars.

Based on the huge population base, as well as the improvement of public health awareness and medical expense payment level, the development opportunities of my country's orthopedic implant market are huge. According to the statistics of Huaxia Cornerstone and other institutions, the market size of my country's orthopedic implants has grown from 11.7 billion yuan in 2013 to 36 billion yuan in 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 17.14%, which is much higher than the global growth rate.

High dependence on imports of core raw materials

The huge market demand promotes the rapid development of the research field of orthopedic raw materials. In recent years, the raw materials of orthopaedic implants have been continuously upgraded, and the types of materials have been gradually enriched. They have developed from early medical stainless steel materials to cobalt-based alloys, titanium-based alloys, and then to polymers, memory metals, and ceramics. be continuously optimized. The continuous development of materials science and technology has provided strong support for the rapid growth of the orthopaedic implant industry.

It is worth noting that my country has rich experience in the research of orthopedic biomedical materials and is in a leading position in the world. There are a large number of scientific research institutes and research teams conducting biomedical materials research in my country, and a considerable number of related papers and patents have been published, and they have a high citation rate. The "China Tissue Engineering Research" magazine has conducted a statistical analysis of the relevant literature on biomedical materials research in the global orthopedic field. The results show that the number of papers published in this field in my country currently accounts for nearly 30%, ranking first in the world. Among them, institutions that have published a large number of related papers include Sichuan University, Fourth Military Medical University, Sixth Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University, Zhejiang University, etc.

However, due to the many factors involved from the basic research stage to the clinical application stage, the transformation efficiency of achievements in the field of orthopedic biomedical materials in my country still needs to be improved. At present, the domestic biomedical material industry as a whole has the problem of not closely connecting scientific and technological innovation and industrial development. The bottleneck mainly lies in the research caused by the inability of technology to adapt to market demand, the disconnection between technology research and management system, weak engineering capabilities, and insufficient capital investment. The transformation of achievements is slow and the degree of industrialization is low. This is also the main reason that most of my country's high-end biomedical materials rely on imports.

At present, foreign orthopedic medical device manufacturers occupy most of the global market share of raw materials such as medical ceramics, medical titanium, polyetheretherketone, cobalt-chromium-molybdenum, and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene. Taking ceramic materials as an example, CeramTec GmbH of Germany is an international giant in this field, including AK Medical, Chunli Medical, Weigao Orthopedics, Johnson & Johnson, Smith & Nephew, Stryker, and Zimmer Biomet. Joint manufacturers purchase raw materials such as ceramic linings and ball joints from them.

In my country's orthopaedic implant industry chain, the upstream raw material industry still lacks leading enterprises, and the import of core raw materials is highly dependent. According to the information disclosed in the prospectuses or annual reports of many leading orthopaedic medical device companies in China, many companies currently have excessive concentration of important raw material suppliers, and even a high degree of dependence on a single supplier. For example, some of the core raw materials of Weigao orthopaedic artificial joint products (such as ceramic ball heads and linings, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, etc.) are mainly purchased from one supplier; the main raw materials used by Dabo Medical (including polyurethane pipes, medical Platinum rings, polycarbonate, medical metal materials, bone cement, etc.) also have relatively concentrated suppliers.

Weigao Orthopedics is one of the manufacturers with the most complete orthopedic product line coverage in China, and its market share of orthopedic implants currently ranks first among domestic companies. Its prospectus shows that since medical titanium materials have gradually achieved import substitution, the raw materials used by the company are mainly from domestic suppliers; while ceramic ball heads and linings, polyetheretherketone rods, cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloy, ultra-high molecular weight polymer Raw materials such as ethylene are still mainly imported.

Enterprises actively seize the incremental market

In order to meet the development needs of the entire orthopedic industry chain, many domestic head orthopedic medical device companies are actively expanding to the upstream raw material field. Taking Chunli Medical as an example, in recent years, it has increased research and development in the fields of porous tantalum materials and magnesium materials. In June 2020, the project of "Development and Clinical Application of Porous Tantalum Bone Repair Materials and Implantable Products" led by Chunli Medical was approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology and became the 2020 National Key R&D Plan "Biomedical Materials R&D and Tissue Organ Repair". One of the key special projects to replace.

It is understood that the reason why Chunli Medical has accelerated the layout of the orthopaedic raw material track is that, on the one hand, the research and development and application of new materials will help improve product performance; on the other hand, this will help the company have more say in cost control. . Chunli Medical's 2021 annual report shows that since some of the company's main raw materials such as cobalt blanks and titanium blanks have been gradually converted from external procurement to self-production, the cost of raw materials has been reduced, and the company's overall gross profit margin has increased.

At the same time, in the field of orthopaedic raw materials, a number of innovative companies have emerged based on material research to expand into applications. Such companies usually have the ability to operate the entire chain of R&D, production and sales, and are actively creating a product diversification path. For example, Aojing Medical is a high-tech enterprise engaged in the research and development, production and sales of high-end biomedical materials and related medical device products. It mainly focuses on the field of mineralized collagen composite artificial bone repair materials, and is committed to providing clinical filling of various types of bone defects throughout the body. and regenerative repair of artificial bone repair materials.

"Material-product" close connection has gradually become the characteristics and advantages of such enterprises. Enterprises often rely on the accumulation of technology in material properties to continuously enhance product performance advantages; some also expand the excellent performance of materials to more It can be used in a wide range of clinical application scenarios, not just limited to the orthopedic market.

At present, raw material innovation is gradually becoming an important direction for the development of orthopaedic medical device companies, which may promote new development of domestic companies. It should be noted that the biomedical material industry is a multidisciplinary knowledge-intensive industry with high requirements for production environment, production process, quality control and other aspects. Enterprises should focus on technology accumulation and continuously improve material research and development capabilities.

In addition, it should be noted that infection, rejection, and release of harmful ions are still major problems faced by the development of implantable medical devices, and they have not been completely solved on a global scale. Orthopedic implant materials still need to be further developed in terms of safety and functionality. Therefore, how to continuously innovate in the field of orthopedic raw materials and how to overcome the limitations of materials is very important for my country's orthopedic implant R&D and production enterprises to break through the development bottleneck.