Med-tech companies eye surgical stapler market

Owing to rising medical needs, China's surgical stapler market will enjoy a bright future, yet more efforts are needed to break technical barriers, industry experts said.

Surgical staplers are used to close wounds ranging from abdominal procedures to skin incisions, and are deployed widely around the world in surgical settings. Based on different surgical methods, surgical staplers can be divided into open staplers and endoscopic staplers.

A recent report from Huaan Securities showed that between 2015 and 2021, China's surgical stapler market surged from 5.3 billion yuan ($762.1 million) to 10 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 11.2 percent. It is estimated that by 2030, the market will reach 20.6 billion yuan and the sector's CAGR between 2022 and 2030 will be around 8.2 percent, higher than the global level.

"Although the current market surpasses 10 billion yuan, and has been steadily growing, the market pattern is undergoing a critical transformation period," said Zhang Jing, a medical device expert at VBData.cn, a Chongqing-based healthcare service platform.

Market competition is fierce. By November, there were 1,606 domestic surgical stapler manufacturers registered with the National Medical Products Administration.

However, competition between domestic companies is mainly centered in the open stapler sector, which contains relatively lower level technology, while the high-end endoscopic stapler sector is still dominated by foreign corporations such as Johnson & Johnson and Medtronic.

"In the open stapler sector, after years of development, many domestic manufacturers have overcome technical barriers, and are able to produce products that enjoy the same quality and performance as imported ones. Currently, open staplers produced by domestic players roughly take up half of the market share," said Zhang.

He said that in the endoscopic stapler sector, as the sector contains high technical barriers, only a few leading domestic companies are able to develop such products. The sector is mainly dominated by foreign brands.

"Currently, Johnson & Johnson and Covidien of Medtronic take up 60 percent and 25 percent of the domestic market share, respectively, and domestic suppliers account for the remaining 15 percent," Zhang added.

Industry experts said that facing fierce competition, domestic manufacturers are stepping up efforts in enhancing research and development, upgrading production technology, cutting production costs and raising core competitiveness.

According to the report from VBData.cn, in terms of domestic players, leading enterprises, including Suzhou, Jiangsu province-based Touchstone International Medical Science Co Ltd; Ningbo, Zhejiang province-based David Medical Device Co Ltd; Changzhou, Jiangsu province-based Canopus; Beijing-based Panther Healthcare; and Shanghai-based Genesis MedTech, have developed or are developing third-generation surgical staplers, and can hopefully compete with foreign firms in the mid to high-end market.

Third-generation surgical staplers, which are electric, are both labor-saving and time-saving, and the tissue is cut and sutured continuously and steadily. They better control bleeding and help to reduce the probability of medical accidents.

Domestic companies have been enhancing R&D to develop these products. In the first half, Touchstone increased its R&D investment to 16.47 million yuan, or 15.51 percent of its sales revenue. Its electric surgical stapler has since received NMPA approval.