On February 24, 2020, at a press conference held by the World Health Organization expert group, the expert group leader Aylward said "If I get infected, I hope to be treated in China." One of the reasons is that there are There are 5 ECMOs and dozens of ventilators.
This report once made Chinese people proud.
ECMO is commonly known as artificial heart-lung machine, also known as artificial lung, which can provide cardiopulmonary support for critically ill patients for a certain period of time. There are more than 400 ECMOs in China.
In fact, all of China's existing artificial lungs rely on imports. There are only five companies in the world that can produce artificial lungs: Medtronic in the United States, MAQUET in Germany, Sorin in Germany, Terumo in Japan, and Fresenius in Germany.
At present, the average price of each imported ECMO in China is around 1.6 million yuan. Because of the high degree of monopoly, the profits of artificial lung manufacturers themselves are very considerable.
In addition, the consumables used by ECMO also rely on imports, which is the manufacturer's second most important profit. On the day of the artificial lung, the cost of puncturing the tube and membrane lung was mainly about 60,000 yuan. These expensive consumables were all imported. In addition, there was also the daily testing and laboratory drug costs, which cost about 100,000 yuan for a machine. If a severely ill patient uses it for half a month, the total cost of various medical expenses, testing fees, and drugs may be as high as 300,000 yuan.
The ventilators used in the intensive care unit are also facing foreign monopoly. At present, the ventilators with the highest market share in China are from Philips Respironics, with a market share of 55%, followed by ResMed, with a share of 25%. The remaining slightly lower-end market is reserved for domestic ventilators.
These phenomena reflect the fact that China's medical device market has long been monopolized by foreign giants.