China’s interventional cardiology products market is expected to undergo unprecedented growth due to surging disease incidence

Clearstate analysis of interventional cardiology products’ market opportunity in China reveals a huge market set to experience exceptional growth across several product segments over the next few years. The market is expanding in line with a dramatic rise in cardiovascular disease among increasingly affluent and urbanised Chinese, with the resulting surge in demand for high quality cardiac care. Being the leading cause of death in China, cardiovascular disease has become a major epidemic risk, killing an estimated 2.6 million people annually. Growing at a rapid rate of 25% annually, an estimated 100 million people in China is expected to be diagnosed with cardiovascular disease by the end of 2009.

Cardiologists and patients across China are increasingly likely to opt for interventional procedures to treat cardiovascular diseases, due to the less invasive nature, the higher risk of stroke in open-heart surgery and “benefits” in the form of “rebates” given by suppliers to clinicians from the usage of interventional cardiology medical devices.

Clearstate research estimates that in 2008, catheter-based diagnostic and therapeutic techniques were employed in approximately 950,000 cardiology procedures. Procedure volumes will grow at an exceptional compound annual rate of 27%, to reach 2.5 million in 2012. Established interventional cardiology procedures—diagnostic angiography, PTCA and coronary stenting, among others—are performed widely in China, largely across Level 3 hospitals equipped with catheterisation laboratories. The more advanced procedures and devices are typically concentrated at large cardiology specialized Level 3A hospitals in key metropolitan cities.

In line with the procedure volumes, the overall interventional cardiology products market in China—consisting of sales of diagnostic and therapeutic products—will experience rapid growth at an estimated compound annual rate of 23%. The market amounted to approximately USD 770 million in 2008, and is expected to more than doubled, reaching USD 1.8 billion in 2012. Therapeutic interventional cardiology products accounted for the bulk of the overall market (91% of estimated sales value in 2008), with the high-value coronary stents forming the largest product segment.

Over the next few years, growth in demand for interventional cardiology products will be affected by a range of economic, regulatory and technological factors. Key demand drivers include a surge in disease incidence due to affluence and lifestyle changes, resulting increase in demand for diagnosis and treatment, price cuts due to increasing competition from domestic suppliers and government price reduction initiatives, among other factors. The main constraints to growth remain high device and procedure costs for the average population, inadequate insurance coverage, limited clinicians and uneven skill levels across hospitals.
In terms of market share, the supplier landscape has undergone considerable change in the high-value device segments. In particular, domestic Chinese suppliers, with their lower cost positioning, have made great inroads in the coronary stenting and transcatheter septal defect repair devices to the extent of achieving market dominance. These include MicroPorts Medical, Lepu Medical, JW Medical, among others. Multinational corporations continue to retain their clear leadership in all other devices such as catheters, guidewires, and introducers/sheaths. Cordis, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson remains the largest overall supplier for the interventional cardiology products market in 2008, with leading sales in angioplasty and angiography devices, and strong sales in coronary stents. Other key multinational suppliers were Abbott Vascular, Medtronic and Boston Scientific.

Tan Shen Leng, Associate at Clearstate