Consumer medicine will be included in the scope of collection dental implants or farewell to the "era of profiteering"

The executive meeting of the State Council held on January 10 decided to "normalize and institutionalize the centralized procurement of drugs and high-value medical consumables to further reduce the medical burden of patients", and clearly put forward that "it is necessary to gradually expand the coverage of high-value medical consumables collection, and carry out collection and collection of orthopedic consumables, drug balloons, implants, etc. that are of concern to the masses at the national and provincial levels". This is the first time that a collection of dental implants has been proposed at the national level.

As early as September 22, 2021, the National Medical Insurance Bureau published the "Reply to Recommendation No. 5207 of the Fourth Session of the 13th National People's Congress" on its official website, replying to the representative's suggestion on regulating the cost of implant materials and including the cost of treatment and service in medical insurance.

In the reply, the National Medical Insurance Bureau did not explicitly carry out dental implant collection. Because according to the relevant regulations, the drugs and consumables in the medical insurance are conditionally included in the collection. At present, in all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, glasses, dentures, prosthetics and other appliances are not included in the scope of basic medical insurance payment. The executive meeting of the State Council clarified the collection of orthopedic consumables, drug balloons, and dental implants that are of concern to the masses at the national and provincial levels, reflecting the government's determination and strength to further reduce the medical burden on patients.

The reporter recently visited a number of dental clinics and learned that the current price of a dental implant is mainly in the range of 6,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan. Due to the high cost of payment, dental programs rarely make it into Medicare reimbursement.

The inclusion of dental implants in collection has a vane significance. "The purpose of the collection is to reduce the burden of drug costs on patients and solve the problem of difficult to see a doctor and the high cost of illness, which does not depend on whether medical insurance reimburses." It is not that if Medicare does not pay, it will not be collected. Some industry analysts stressed to reporters.

In fact, dental implant collection has quietly begun to advance in some provinces. On November 18, 2021, the Sichuan Pharmaceutical Equipment Bidding and Procurement Service Center issued a notice to start collecting oral high-value medical consumables product information, covering medical consumables, implants, repair abutments, implant repair accessories, etc. required for oral implant system. The reporter learned that Zhejiang, Ningxia, Shanxi, Hubei and other places have also successively carried out the filling in of historical procurement data for oral medical consumables.

Dental implants are composed of implants, abutments, and crowns, with implants as the core consumables. At present, Korean implant brands continue to increase their market share by virtue of their price advantages. The implant technology of European and American manufacturers is more mature, and the surface treatment technology, materials and design are more advantageous, but the price is about 3 times that of Korean brands, and the market share is small. According to the statistics of Guohai Securities, in terms of market size in 2020, the market share of domestic implants is about 6.8%.

The reporter learned from industry insiders that the crown in the implant belongs to the small classification of dentures. China is a large exporter of dentures, because of its low processing barriers and the pattern is relatively scattered. According to the data of the State Food and Drug Administration, in 2018, there were more than 2,000 enterprises with denture product registration certificates in China.

There are also a number of segments of prosthetic materials in the implant track, including bone prosthetic materials and oral prosthetic membranes. Oral orthopedic orthopedic implant materials belong to the bone defect repair materials in the high-value consumables of orthopedics, according to the prospectus of Aojing Medical, the domestic share of the oral orthopedic implant industry is about 15%.

"After the collection, there may be localization of import manufacturers, or cooperation with local enterprises, which is conducive to the expansion of the market share of domestic enterprises." A staff member of an industry enterprise said.