Securities Daily reporter Zhang Min and trainee reporter Xiong Yue
On December 19, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning and other 16 provinces (autonomous regions, Corps) led by the Shaanxi Provincial Medical Insurance Bureau's centralized procurement of orthodontic bracket consumables produced the results of the proposed selection.
572 products from 32 companies are to be selected, and the prices of the products to be selected will drop by an average of 43.23%, with a maximum drop of 88%. It is estimated that the alliance can save more than 130 million yuan in procurement funds every year.
The results of the centralized procurement plan announced by the Shaanxi Provincial Public Resources Trading Center show that the types of consumables to be purchased in this alliance include brackets, invisible braces without brackets, buccal tubes and other consumables.
Brackets are divided into ordinary metal brackets, ordinary ceramic brackets, self-locking metal brackets and other varieties of different materials, basically covering consumables involved in orthodontics.
In the field of orthodontics, invisible orthodontics is an emerging market outside of traditional orthodontics. Among them, the domestic head brand Times Angel and the imported brand Invisalign occupy the vast majority of the market share.
According to the Western Securities Research Report, as of 2020, in terms of orthodontic cases, the two together account for about 82.4% of the total market share.
There are 12 products to be selected under the bracketless orthodontics group, of which Angel of Times has three products to be selected, and Align Technology, which belongs to Invisalign, was not selected.
Liu Yuqi, a senior consultant of CIC Consulting, told the "Securities Daily" reporter that judging from the results of this centralized procurement, the overall domestic quotation volume is significantly greater than that of imports, and in some sectors there is a phenomenon that leading imported manufacturers have lost their bids, which is conducive to optimization. Competitive landscape and promotion of domestic substitution.
In addition, since most of the provinces in the centralized procurement alliance are low-tier markets, for invisible orthodontic manufacturers, there is also an opportunity to accelerate the deployment of the sinking market with the help of centralized procurement.
However, orthodontics is a relatively high-end consumer medical project with both therapeutic and aesthetic properties. To what extent will end consumers benefit from the centralized procurement of consumables?
It is reported that the price of bracketless orthodontic appliances used for invisible correction has dropped in the range of 23% to 66%.
However, judging from the prices to be selected, the prices of most products are concentrated at 5,000 to 10,000 yuan, which is still relatively high overall.
In fact, the cost of consumables is only a part of orthodontic treatment, and the proportion of diagnosis and treatment service fees is relatively higher.
Generally speaking, the orthodontic process includes film examination, plan formulation, periodontal treatment, bracket correction, regular follow-up visits and other links.
According to the analysis of Pacific Securities, the cost of orthodontic treatment accounts for more than 50% of the cost of diagnosis and treatment.
According to the "2018 China Orthodontics Market Consumption Blue Book", the market prices of metal brackets, ceramic brackets, metal/ceramic self-ligating brackets, invisible orthodontics, and lingual invisible orthodontics are 20,000 yuan, 22,000 yuan, 23,000 to 33,000 yuan, 35,000 to 45,000 yuan, and 55,000 to 80,000 yuan.
Liu Yuqi believes that the orthodontic expenses paid by consumer patients are generally composed of "consumables + diagnosis and treatment services", and the proportion of consumables in the two types of orthodontic solutions, bracket orthodontics and non-bracket invisible orthodontics, is different.
In contrast, bracket orthodontics is more dependent on the doctor’s experience and operating skills, and the cost of consumables is relatively low; while invisible orthodontics without brackets benefit from digital equipment and medical and technical support from manufacturers, the cost of consumables will be higher.
"Because in orthodontic diagnosis and treatment, the cost of diagnosis and treatment services is also the bulk, and this centralized procurement is only for consumables, which has a certain impact on the terminal price but is not obvious overall."
It is precisely because of this that the centralized procurement of consumables for orthodontics is different from the centralized procurement of dental implants. The scope of the latter’s centralized procurement includes two links: consumables and medical service fees.
For example, the price limit payment policy for dental implant medical insurance launched by the Ningbo Medical Insurance Bureau previously limited the price of consumables to 1,000 yuan for domestic and 1,500 yuan for imports, and the medical service fee for medical institutions (level two and below) was set at 2,000 yuan.
Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Consulting, told reporters, "For consumables manufacturers, they can enter more markets through centralized procurement, thereby expanding sales. On the surface, sales prices have dropped, but overall, marketing costs have been reduced. , channel costs, etc., the profit margin is actually rising.”