A pacemaker is an electronic therapy instrument implanted in the body.

Simply put, it is to use electrical pulses to stimulate the myocardium contacted by the electrode through the conduction of the wire electrode, causing the heart to be excited and contract, forcibly pave the heart, and make the heart beat normally.

This will achieve the purpose of treating cardiac dysfunction caused by certain arrhythmias!

For example, heart failure, arrhythmia of various causes, atrial fibrillation, atrial restoration, sinoatrial node insufficiency, atrioventricular block, cardiomyopathy and many other diseases involving the heart require the use of a pacemaker to treat it.

This is a very powerful and important medical device.

To this day, pacemakers have been available in many different styles to treat different heart diseases.

From the most primitive single-cavity pacemakers to dual-cavity, antimagnetic resonance, single-cavity ICD, double-cavity ICD, and anti-heart failure CRT!

The price ranges from the cheapest single-chamber pacemaker that can be 20,000 to 30,000 yuan per one to the most expensive anti-heart failure CRT pacemaker that can be 150,000 yuan per one.

Unfortunately, the various pacemakers on the market are basically imported products.

At present, the pacemaker market in the domestic market is mainly monopolized by foreign brands. The three brands Medtronic, St. Jude and Baiduoli basically monopolize more than 80% of China's pacemaker market.

Boston Science, Solin Group, Vitatron and other second-tier foreign brands account for the remaining 10%!

"Medtronic, St. Jude and Baiduoli, have raised the price together?" Chen Changan looked at Guan Kou in disbelief and asked in confusion: "There is no reaction from domestic brands? This is a good opportunity for them to promote their own products!"

However, Guan Kou shook his head and said bitterly: "Mr. Chen, domestic pacemakers are still in their infancy, and there is still a big gap between the products and foreign companies, and there is basically no market share."

"At present, there are only two and a half companies in the field of pacemakers in China."

"Lepu Medical Electric is the earliest enterprise in my country that specializes in the pacemaker business, but the single-cavity pacemaker they developed in cooperation with Xijiao University was only launched in 2009. Although it broke the foreign monopoly in the domestic pacemaker market, because the products are too primitive, almost no patients choose to use them in the market."

"Later in 2016, Lepu Yidian successfully developed a dual-chamber pacemaker, which changed the current situation where dual-chamber pacemakers rely entirely on imports, and their performance reached the mid-stream level of imported products, and their price was about 30% lower than similar imported products!

"However, because the product appeared late, it only started clinical practice in 2017 and has not been tested by the market for a long time. Moreover, because it is a new product, failures occur occasionally and are not accepted by the market."

"So far, it has not even been popularized nationwide, and case implantation has only been completed in more than 20 provinces."

"And another pacemaker from Xianjian Technology started even later. It was approved for listing in early 2018, and there was only one implantable pacemaker, which was surrounded by major foreign companies. It is currently unable to be promoted in China, and the company's operations are in difficulties."

"The last half is a joint venture company called Micro-Invasive Medical and a foreign company, Solin Group, which has 51% of its shares and controls the controlling stake."

"This company's products were only launched at the end of 2017, but with the technical support of foreign companies, their pacemakers have 3 series and 8 models, and they are very small in size, and their technical content has reached the top international level."

"However, because of the entry of foreign capital, this company is very consistent with the foreign brand in terms of pace, and basically advances and retreats with Solin Group."

After listening to Guan Kou's brief description, Chen Changan gently tapped the armrest of the seat with his fingers, silent.

According to her, the domestic cardiac pacemaker brand has almost no competitiveness. The single-cavity pacemaker has been developing for more than ten years and can barely rely on medical insurance to reimburse a small amount of patients with very financial difficulties.

However, the field of double-chamber pacemakers has basically been completely defeated, and domestic brands have no room for survival.

As for the more advanced three-chamber pacemakers, the field of dual-chamber pacemakers with anti-seismic and anti-heart failure functions is even more blank.

The domestic pacemaker industry is completely up to date with foreign companies. They sell whatever they want. Domestic patients have no choice. After all, the right to choose is never in the hands of patients.

"Then why did Medtronic raise the price with St. Jude and Baiduoli this time?" Chen Changan was a little confused.

These three foreign companies basically have 80% of the domestic pacemaker market. The remaining foreign companies can only drink some soup, and domestic ones can't even drink soup...

Guan Kou said a little embarrassedly: "Maybe...it may be because Medtronic lost the market of invasive ventilators in China. In order to maintain performance growth, he had to provoke the market for pacemakers, the decline in the domestic brand, to raise prices retaliatedly."

"The other two foreign companies are naturally happy to raise prices. Who doesn't want to make more money? They used to compete with each other and couldn't reach an agreement, so they dared not raise prices alone. Now I guess what price Medtronic paid to convince them to raise prices together..."

In the field of medical consumables in China, pacemakers are definitely the softest persimmons, and they can be rubbed.

The pricing power is completely in the hands of the three major foreign companies. They can sell as much as they want!

Moreover, the profit of cardiac pacemakers is amazing. The starting price of the cheapest pacemaker is 10,000 or 20,000 yuan. The most commonly used double-chamber pacemakers are 50,000 to 60,000 yuan, not to mention some high-end pacemakers, which cost about 100,000 yuan per day, and need to be replaced once every 6-10 years.

The factory price of a single-cavity pacemaker in Medtronic is only a little over 5,000 yuan. It can be sold to a hospital for nearly 20,000 yuan, with a profit margin of more than three times!

Medtronic was driven out of the ventilator market by domestic companies such as Ruikang and Mindray. Naturally, it is necessary to find the place elsewhere and not to lose hundreds of millions of profits in vain.

Obviously, the pacemaker market was targeted by Medtronic. It was easy to bully and had no ability to resist. The price was increased, and domestic hospitals could only accept it because they had no other choice except imported products.

Chen Changan frowned and asked unhappily: "What is the most advanced pacemaker in the world now?"

Guan Kou read through the information he had just collected, searched for it for a while, and introduced: "The most advanced pacemaker is the world's smallest pacemaker launched by Medtronic."

"This product was first unveiled at the first CIIE in 2018 and was approved for sale in China in 2020. This year, many top hospitals in China have tried dozens of cases."

"This pacemaker has a volume of 25.9 mm, a volume of only 1 cubic centimeter and a weight of only 2 grams, which is 93% smaller than the traditional pacemaker, and is about the size of a vitamin capsule!"

"Because it is very small, there is no need for surgery during surgery. You only need to pass the femoral vein puncture and directly implant it into the heart through the catheter, which greatly reduces the risk of surgery and is very friendly to the elderly.

"And this pacemaker does not need to be connected to wires, avoiding the defects and risks of long-term use of traditional pacemakers."

"The surgery process will not cause damage to the lungs, nor will it cause complications such as pneumothorax. It only takes 1-2 hours to get out of bed and move around after the operation. You can be discharged from the hospital for two days to return to normal work and life. There will be no scars on the chest and no incisions."

"This is a new product that is completely ahead of all traditional pacemakers. It is an epoch-making product. The future pacemaker field is expected to be completely replaced by this product."

Judging from Guan Kou's description, this is a very awesome product, which is equivalent to the evolution of mobile phones from feature phones to smart phones.

But Chen Changan smiled lightly and said meaningfully: "So, no cardiac pacemaker brand has successfully developed a biological pacemaker?"

Guan Kou was stunned for a moment, lowered his head and looked through the information again, shook his head and said affirmatively: "No, the biological pacemaker is still only at the theoretical level."
Chapter completed!