At present, in the pharmaceutical industry, cross-border winds have also become increasingly rampant. First, Chinese medicine companies have entered the health field one after another and started buying and selling shampoos, toothpaste, and wound dressings. Recently, Lepu Medical has also entered the pharmaceutical field through the acquisition of new Shuaike Pharmaceutical. They "cross the river by feeling the stones" and look forward to finding new growth poles for their long-term development.

Industry experts pointed out that it is very difficult for medical device companies to cross-border pharmaceuticals, and R&D and production of medical devices and drug R&D and production are completely different areas. In order to enter the pharmaceutical industry, equipment companies must either team up with their own investment sources or start from scratch. This is too difficult; the other way is to conduct mergers and acquisitions like Lepu Medical, but the operating systems of equipment companies and pharmaceutical companies are not the same. How the effect remains to be seen.

Crossover is a new growth pole <br><br><br><br><br> BD has been engaged in the production and sales of medical equipment, medical systems and reagents. It was announced earlier that its first prefilled drug diphenhydramine hydrochloride Has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for listing. In addition, on April 23, the FDA also approved the listing of another drug, methicone, for BD.

“In the next few years, we will also introduce more new drugs,” said Deng Jianmin, BD’s global vice president and general manager of Greater China. “In fact, many large multinational companies have a successful precedent for diversification. For example, Johnson & Johnson is currently the most diversified, with equipment, diagnostics, and pharmaceuticals involved."

Coincidentally, on June 22, Lepu Medical also held a signing ceremony for the acquisition of equity in cooperation with Henan Xinshaoke Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and its controlling shareholder in Beijing, and formally acquired 60% of the shares in Henan Xinshaoke Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. Market sales, product development and services are all integrated and optimized.

Lepu Medical stated that this acquisition provides Lepu Medical with an important opportunity to expand from the medical device to the pharmaceutical industry, which will enable the company to quickly enter the market with a much broader market for further expansion and development in the cardiovascular drug field. Provides an industry platform. The company plans to establish two major industrial sectors, medical devices and pharmaceuticals within 3 to 5 years, which will provide more diverse services to a wider range of cardiovascular patients.

Chen Guodong, an analyst in the pharmaceutical industry at Risen Securities, pointed out: “Over the years, Lepu Medical has gained a high reputation in the cardiovascular sector with its high-quality services. Through this acquisition, the company will acquire core drug approvals for cardiovascular drugs. , Product Lines and R&D Platforms By leveraging the core competencies of the two companies, the pharmaceutical products sales network will be optimized and reorganized to create synergies and complementarities, which will greatly increase the company’s overall brand influence and share the rapid growth benefits of the cardiovascular medicine and medical industry.

According to preliminary estimates from brokerage companies, the new Shuai Ke company's profit contribution to Lepu Medical will be second only to the drug stent products within two years, and it is likely to continue to grow rapidly, and will soon form a second business line equivalent to the device. Accelerate the overall performance of the company into a new and more stable rising channel.

Based on the device "strengthening weaknesses"

Why should medical device companies enter the more competitive pharmaceutical sector?

Chen Guodong said that on the one hand, it is under pressure from growth pressure, and medical device companies need to find new sources of growth. Observing some medical device companies in the A-share market, it is not difficult to find that most of the companies are growing rapidly at the initial IPO, but as the company's flagship products occupy a higher market share, it will continue to grow and face bottlenecks. Although it is difficult for medical device companies to cross-border pharmaceuticals, the pressure of growth has also urged companies to find new areas that they are most confident of entering.

However, some analysts believe that some medical device listed companies are faced with a bottleneck in performance growth after the IPO, and they do not exclude high performance before the listing and the change in performance after the listing.

For the pharmaceutical sector where cross-border entry has become more competitive, Deng Jianmin's explanation is that such diversification can enhance the company's operating efficiency and profitability, and putting eggs in different baskets can reduce risk. And BD has a certain technical foundation, market knowledge and experience.

In fact, BD and Lepu Medical have seen the shortcomings of medical device companies entering the pharmaceutical industry across the border, and they have to “strengthen weaknesses.”

Deng Jianmin pointed out: "BD will not face the competition with the old pharmaceutical companies. BD currently does generic drugs, and it is a generic medicine based on technology and based on medical devices."

Lectra's new acquisition of Lepu Medical is a pharmaceutical company in the cardiovascular field, and Lepu Medical's flagship medical device products also focus on the cardiovascular sector and have a high correlation with each other.

The pharmaceutical field is still a brand-new field for medical device companies. Whether it is their own teams, investment sources, or operations through mergers and acquisitions, it is still unclear whether their cross-border can play a "turn." However, it is expected that with the increasing pressure on business growth, more domestic medical device companies will join the cross-border category in the future.

Investment needs "fine" Look <br> <br> With the gradual expansion of the coverage of the health care system, as well as to enhance capacity building of government primary health care system, patients pay the increased investment, the development potential of China's medical device industry is widely favored by the capital The market is highly concerned. However, many investors find it difficult to find sustainable investments in the medical device industry.

Under normal circumstances, medical device companies have two main directions when seeking new growth points. One is cross-border segmentation within the industry, such as the transition from consumables to equipment, and Shanghai Yaqiao Bio-Pharmaceutical Investment Co., Ltd. Manager Zhou Xuan told reporters: “There is almost no commonality in R&D between different segments of medical devices. The R&D platform does not have continuity. The cross-border difficulty in segmentation is not small.” Another direction is to pharmaceuticals, etc. In other areas of the medical industry, Zhou Xuan stated that medical devices, whether sales or R&D, are completely different from drugs, and the difficulty of cross-border development is self-evident.

In 2012, the market size of the medical device industry in China was about 150 billion yuan, and the compound annual growth rate in the last 10 years was 21.3%, far exceeding the developed countries. The market expects that by 2015 China's medical device market will reach 53.7 billion US dollars.

According to statistics, in 2012, medical equipment was the most closely followed by private equity and venture capital. From the perspective of the number of investment cases, the number of medical devices traded was 2.58 times that of 2011, the transaction amount was three times that of 2011, and the proportion of the total transaction amount of medical and health industries rose from 2.46% in 2011 to 17.51%.

However, Dongyue Chenjian of Yuyue Medical Equipment Co., Ltd. stated: "Investing in medical device companies looking at macro and industry data is not enough to predict, but should focus more on the breakdown of the company's business." Unfortunately, currently There is no authority in the country that can accurately provide data on subdivisions. In addition, investors must also face the complexity of the industry's technology and the difficulty of supporting it. He pointed out: "The medical device industry is essentially a complex manufacturing industry involving many supporting industries. The domestic medical device material technology is not yet mature, and it also inhibits the development and competitiveness of domestic medical device companies."

At present, the diagnostics projects in the medical device field in China are developing better than the therapeutic projects. Chen Jian believes: "This is because the risk of diagnostic projects is low, and the worst outcome of products is inaccurate diagnosis. Implantable medical devices for the treatment of diseases such as orthopedics and cardiovascular diseases are not allowed to make mistakes, which also widens the technological gap between China and leading countries in the treatment of medical devices."

When it comes to innovation, medical device companies generally have two options. One is alternative innovation, and the other is disruptive innovation. Are disruptive technological innovation projects an investment target? Chen Jian does not encourage this. According to reports, disruptive innovation projects must have a strong academic background as support before they can enter clinical applications. For example, it can be published in international academic journals, recognized by top international experts, etc. At the same time, disruptive technologies require a certain amount of time for hospitals and clinicians to understand and accept. These practical obstacles greatly reduce the possibility of small companies succeeding through disruptive innovation.

However, the overall high growth of the medical device industry is beyond doubt. Chen Jian said: “In addition to the natural growth of the industry, China’s traditional medical culture focuses on heavy medicine, light medicine, and light machinery, leading to a far higher ratio of pharmaceuticals to the international market.” According to statistics, China’s medical device market accounts for the total pharmaceutical market size. %, which is far from the global level of 42%, but it also shows that the industry has great potential for development, and it is considered by the investment community that there is more room for excavation.