With the expansion of centralized volume procurement of medical consumables to include categories such as laparoscopic staplers and tissue forceps in the fourth quarter of 2024, the industry is undergoing a major reshuffle.

With the expansion of the centralized volume procurement of medical consumables in the fourth quarter of 2024 to include categories such as laparoscopic staplers and tissue forceps, the industry is undergoing a profound reshuffle. The results of this centralized procurement show that domestic products have seen an average price reduction of 62%, but leading companies such as Xinghe Medical have achieved cost reduction and quality improvement through material innovation: their new generation of tissue forceps uses independently developed Ti-6Al-4V ELI medical titanium alloy, with a clamping force stability of 98%, and raw material costs are 40% lower than imported products.

Material science breakthroughs have become key to competition. For example, in the field of staplers, Xinghe Medical has innovatively applied polyetheretherketone (PEEK) to replace traditional stainless steel, reducing the weight of the nail chamber components by 50% and providing better X-ray permeability. The company has also jointly established a "Biomedical Materials Joint Laboratory" with the Ningbo Institute of Materials Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, focusing on the research and development of degradable anastomosis ring technology, which is expected to be clinically applied in 2025.

The industry faces a double challenge: on the one hand, under the pressure of centralized procurement, the profit margin of small and medium-sized enterprises has been compressed to below 5%; on the other hand, the EU MDR new regulations have raised the threshold for overseas expansion. Xinghe Medical is responding to the changing situation with a dual-track strategy of "high-end products going overseas + mid-range products ensuring supply": its ten-thousand-level cleanroom-produced sterile instruments have met the requirements of MDR Annex XV sterility appendix, and its 2023 overseas sales increased by 300% year-on-year. It is worth noting that the centralized procurement has added a policy of "separate grouping of innovative medical devices," and Xinghe Medical's intelligent stapler, as a unique product, has entered Group A, avoiding vicious price competition.

Analysts believe that in the next three years, the industry will present a "dumbbell-shaped" pattern: one end will be high-value consumable companies with core technologies, and the other end will be general consumable manufacturers with cost advantages, while the survival space of mid-tier companies will be compressed. Xinghe Medical, by deploying the intelligent medical device track, is climbing to the top of the value chain, and its development path provides an important reference for industry transformation and upgrading.