Heart Ailments Rising In China In Tandem With Rapid Urbanization, Adoption Of Western Lifestyles
This article was originally published in PharmAsia News
Executive Summary
HONG KONG - As rapid-fire urbanization and the mass adoption of Western lifestyles transform China, the World Health Organization estimates that the average cholesterol level among Chinese men - which was 4.15 in 1984 - over the next 21 years had jumped to 5.5
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HONG KONG - As rapid-fire urbanization and the mass adoption of Western lifestyles transform China, the World Health Organization estimates that the average cholesterol level among Chinese men - which was 4.15 in 1984 - over the next 21 years had jumped to 5.5. While China in the past had reported among the lowest levels in the world, it was, by 2005, moving toward the top of the table and higher than the US (5.1), the UK (5.1) and beef-rich Argentina (5.4). The result is higher levels of atherosclerosis, which can lead to ischemia and heart attacks. There is also growing incidence of cerebral vascular diseases and peripheral vascular disease. Every year, coronary heart disease kills 57 out of every 100,000 city dwellers and almost 34 people in rural areas. The incidence of chest pains or discomfort is growing. Heart attacks are increasingly common as are myocardial disorders and congestive heart failure. Doctors are witnessing more and more congenital heart defects. All told cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of China's biggest killers, leading to about 300 deaths every hour or 2.6 million per year. A recent report suggests the number of people with CVD is jumping by 25 percent every year in Chinese cities due to growing affluence and increasingly unhealthy lifestyles. These factors may create a huge market for new and innovative products, both diagnostic and therapeutic, as well as drugs. The surge in the Chinese market comes at a time when multinational pharmaceutical giants are witnessing CVD drug use in developed markets, such as blockbusters Lipitor (by Pfizer) and Plavix (by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis) set to come off patent protection in the next couple of years, according to Datamonitor. Both Lipitor and Plavix lose patent protection in 2011. At the same time, healthcare spending in China is rising. As a whole, the country now spends about 4.5 to 4.7 percent of its GDP on healthcare. As GDP grows, so does that spending. A rising number of hidden rebates on interventional cardiology devices - used in up to 15 percent of procedures - is also driving up the use of such products. In 2008, the market for interventional cardiology products - diagnostic and therapeutic products - was worth about $774 million and was expected to more than double by 2012 to $1.8 billion. About 90 percent of the market is in therapeutic interventional products and the largest segment - accounting for 67 percent of the market - is in coronary stenting using both drug eluting and bare metal stents, according to a report by Medtech Insight and Elsevier Business Intelligence, which publishes Pharmasia News. Better education and more financial activity in the medical devices market - such as mergers or acquisitions - are also driving the market. Almost 950,000 procedures using catheter-based techniques were done in 2008, and some 2.5 million are likely to be performed by 2012. But there are barriers. For one, multinational manufacturers are weary of weak IP enforcement, which may hold them back from bringing new products or expanding rapidly. The market is also hugely fragmented with eastern cities likely experiencing fast growth but more rural western areas lagging far behind. Finally, a chronic shortage of surgeons makes it difficult to introduce new products. Local players have been emerging with products that are not necessarily innovative, but are about 40 percent cheaper and have captured large swaths of the market. But multinationals are holding on to segments including angiography, angioplasty and other specialized areas thanks to better research and more advanced products. Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Cordis led in 2008 with about a fifth of the market. Abbot Vascular, Medtronic and Boston Scientific all held on to significant shares as well. Domestic players like MicroPorts Medical and Lepu Medical were reported as the second and third largest interventional cardiology products suppliers in 2008. Other products used in percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty procedures accounted for 19.7 percent of the market and diagnostic coronary angiography products were third in value with about 9 percent of the overall market. All three of these segments are expected to continue growing rapidly every year, while other small segments are likely to see double-digit growth until 2012. - Alfred Romann ([email protected]) |