Can you spend a few hundred or even dozens of dollars to decipher your "life and health code"? Consumer-grade genetic testing and cancer screening at the cusp of the outlet have become a feast in the eyes of capital.
According to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on February 17, the leading genetic testing company Main Gene submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which is expected to become the first listed double leading enterprise in China with both consumer-grade genetic testing and cancer screening business.
In recent years, with the continuous development of genetic testing technology and the continuous improvement of consumers' awareness of health care, from "punk health" to targeted supplementation to decoding "life genetic information", people have begun to pay more attention to and pay more attention to their own health.
As the only company to achieve profitability in the consumer-grade genetic testing industry, and is also the largest cancer screening platform in China, Main Gene has also begun to enter people's field of vision. How did The Main gene, which is in these two golden tracks, grow into an industry leader in just 6 years?
01, "fly into the homes of ordinary people"
Technology that serves the public is good technology.
In 2013, American actress Angelina Jolie determined through genetic testing that she had a genetically defective gene BRCA1, and doctors estimated that her chances of breast and ovarian cancer were 87% and 50%, respectively. At the doctor's suggestion, Julie underwent bilateral breast resection and ovarian and salpingoectomy in May 2013 and March 2015 to reduce the risk of cancer.
Through genetic testing to find risks, followed by scientific prevention and intervention, and ultimately reduce the chance of disease, such precision medicine has changed the traditional treatment methods, making it possible to "cure the disease". In the United States, more than 150,000 women have been genetically tested for breast cancer.
In fact, genetic testing is not far away from us, whether it is our common non-invasive prenatal genetic testing (NIPT) or a series of cancer screenings such as cervical cancer and ovarian cancer, and even the nucleic acid testing that almost every one of us has experienced in the past two years, all belong to genetic testing technology.
Genetic testing is an emerging technology based on scientific theories such as genomics and bioinformatics, which detects and analyzes human genes through blood, other body fluids or cells to diagnose diseases and predict the risk of disease.
With the advancement of gene technology, the consumer-grade genetic testing market has slowly become the main force of consumption compared with the scientific research and clinical genetic testing market, and its price has changed from "unattainable" to an ordinary "healthy" consumer goods, with product prices of thousands of dollars, hundreds or even dozens of yuan.
Such a close price makes the door to genetic testing open for ordinary people who pay more attention to their own health and the health of their parents and friends. Judging from the products of Main Gene's gene mall, the products cover a wide range of prices, including low, medium and high price points. For example, the Parkinson's risk assessment genetic testing product jointly developed by Main Gene and Beijing Xuanwu Hospital only costs 299 yuan.
(Web Screenshot)
It should be known that Parkinson's, as a common degenerative disease of the nervous system, has insidious onset and atypical symptoms, and is easy to be ignored and misdiagnosed. In 2020, the number of Parkinson's patients in China has exceeded 2.6 million, accounting for about half of the world's patients, and it is expected that nearly 200,000 new patients will be added every year.
Diseases like Parkinson's, which are high-incidence and have large genetically related risk factors, are difficult to prevent and control with routine physical examinations, and the prodromal period between the first Parkinson's non-motor symptoms and the onset of motor symptoms can reach up to 20 years. Therefore, early detection and early intervention are key.
At present, Main Gene has 89 detection solutions, including cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease risk assessment, various cancer risks such as breast cancer and ovarian cancer.
02. How is the "double crown" refined?
Whether from the perspective of scientific research or science and technology, genetic testing containing human genetic "life" has a large demand market.
Born in 2016, Main Gene can grow into a dual leader in consumer-grade genetic testing and tumor screening in just 6 years, and its key lies in the integrated layout of the upstream, middle and lower reaches.
From a rich product portfolio to having the country's largest testing platform, to working with more than 1,300 medical institutions, to reaching C-end consumers. Maingene forms a seamless ecological chain, which also means that it controls the most competitive value chain.
According to Frost & Sullivan, according to the number of tests in 2020, the market share of Main gene in the consumer-grade genetic testing track reached 65.8%; in the cancer screening track, Main Gene's market share in China's colorectal cancer screening genetic testing industry reached 49.3%.
Through the integration of upstream and midstream business, Main Gene can not only maximize business synergy, but also improve cost control capabilities and release value to the extreme.
Specifically, Main has built a low-cost, high-throughput, automated production system and integrated technology platform system with a daily detection capacity of up to 50,000 times, which can provide high-throughput, automated, multi-scenario genetic testing solutions in a cost-effective manner.
In the downstream channel sales network, in addition to the in-depth cooperation with more than 1300 hospitals and physical examination centers, it has successfully occupied an important traffic entrance of offline preventive medicine. In addition, online platforms, insurance companies, health management centers, etc. are also among them.
In his analysis of the value chain concept, Michael Porter points out: "In a particular industry, the value chain of the enterprise is hidden in a larger group of activities, which we call the 'value system'. ”
In other words, the value chain of a certain business of a certain enterprise is part of a larger industrial and social value creation system or value network. Based on this vision, enterprises can define the length of the value chain, that is, the boundaries of the value chain or the scope of business activities in the whole industrial chain from upstream to downstream.
This value chain not only brings the advantage of scale, but more importantly, Main Gene relies on this strong cost control ability, making it one of the few profitable enterprises.
According to the prospectus, from 2018 to 2020, Main Gene's revenue was 195 million yuan, 123 million yuan and 203 million yuan, respectively, compared with 152 million yuan in the first three quarters of 2021; the net profit in the same period increased from 22.04 million yuan to 79.1 million yuan, and the net profit in the first three quarters of 2021 was 41.62 million yuan.
Based on this layout, it also makes the gross profit margin data of Main Gene perform well. In 2020, the gross profit margin of the company's consumer-grade genetic testing projects was 69.8%, and the gross profit margin of cancer screening projects was 80.5%, far exceeding the industry average.
03. A new "outlet" where opportunities and challenges coexist
As early as a few years ago, Bill Gates asserted: "The next richest man in the world to surpass me must be in the field of genes." "The gene industry is recognized as the dominant emerging industry after IT.
According to Frost & Sullivan, China's consumer-grade genetic testing service market reached $68.5 million in 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 31.0% from 2016 to 2020, according to Frost & Sullivan. It is expected to reach $445 million by 2020.
In addition to the continuous expansion of the scale of the industry, since the "Healthy China 2030" has risen to a national strategy, by 2030, the average life expectancy of the mainland will reach 79 years old, and the overall 5-year survival rate of cancer of the whole people will increase by 15%, and it is proposed to adhere to the principle of prevention first and combination of prevention and treatment, and strengthen the screening of chronic diseases and the early detection of malignant diseases.
It can be said that consumer-grade genetic testing and cancer screening, as a scientific and effective way to predict diseases, stand at the "new outlet" of the health industry track.
But since it is a new outlet, for the players of this track, it can be said that opportunities and challenges coexist. In addition to exploring mature business models and promoting the promotion of genetic testing technology, it is more important to benefit this technology in a more cost-effective way for every ordinary person.
However, at present, from the perspective of the penetration rate of consumer groups, the genetic testing market is still a "blue ocean" that has not yet erupted. In the United States, the penetration rate of consumer-grade genetic testing has reached 8.8%, and the penetration rate of colorectal cancer screening has reached 60.1%.
In 2020, the cumulative number of consumer-grade genetic testing services in China was 12.1 million, and the penetration rate was only 0.8%. It is expected that in 2025, the number of consumer users will reach 43.7 million, and the penetration rate will reach 12.7%.
It is foreseeable that as a "potential stock" of the future health track, with the continuous reduction of the cost of genetic testing, the application scenarios of this technology in the fields of genetic disease detection, tumors, and chronic diseases will be more extensive. Coupled with the promotion of a series of policies to support the development of the health industry, the genetic testing industry has become a new blue ocean of investment, which is bound to play an indispensable mainstay role in the national strategy of "Healthy China 2030".
(Except for the separately marked source, the above picture is from Visual China)