Why Does the Domestic Medical Device Market Share Only Reach 30%?

People Power Party Rep. Kang Ki-yoon Criticizes "Many Small Domestic Firms Face Workforce Supply Challenges"
Gimhae Medical Device Company in Gyeongnam Says "Ignored Due to Small Size, Verification Process Also Difficult"

Kang Ki-yoon, the secretary of the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee and a People Power Party lawmaker representing Changwon Seongsan, criticized the fact that the market share of domestically produced medical devices is only 30% in a press release on the 14th.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Hwang Choi-hyunju] It has been revealed that the market share of domestically produced medical devices in the Korean medical device market has essentially stagnated in the low 30% range.

According to data submitted by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to Kang Ki-yoon (Changwon Seongsan) of the People Power Party, despite the domestic medical device market growing at an average annual rate of 10.3% over the past six years, the import share has remained in the 60% range. The trade balance also recorded a deficit of 524.5 billion KRW last year, showing the largest deficit recently.

Regarding this, Representative Kang pointed out that the Korean medical device industry is limited in market expansion due to its small-scale characteristics, with 97% of companies having fewer than 100 employees as of 2018, and 79.9% of all manufacturers having annual production under 1 billion KRW.

Therefore, Representative Kang argued that to establish focused support for small-scale medical device companies, regular market surveys must be conducted first. According to a 2014 survey, the market share of domestic medical devices was very low, with 8.2% in tertiary general hospitals and 19.9% in general hospitals, and domestic products were increasingly overlooked as the hospital level rose.

For domestic medical device manufacturers, it was pointed out that improvements in the system are necessary as similar foreign products are imported or competitor products are launched during the manufacturing, distribution, sales, marketing, and expert research personnel shortages and the complicated quality verification process.

A medical device company located in Gimhae, Gyeongnam said, “The biggest issue is manpower supply, but the reality is that products from small-scale companies are ignored by medical institutions even if their quality is verified,” adding, “In the process of receiving government or local government R&D support funds, priority is given to products that have completed clinical trials, but it takes time to verify products, so I want to say it is like a ‘castle in the air.’”

Representative Kang said, “Domestic medical device companies lack clinical data and overall understanding of the system due to their small-scale nature,” and “Therefore, the Development Institute must act more proactively to provide various support from R&D, clinical trials, approval, marketing, to insurance, covering everything from device manufacturing to sales.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.