China's X-ray contrast agent consumption per capita is low, and the industry still has potential for development

China's X-ray contrast agent consumption per capita is low, and the industry still has potential for development
The proportion of generic contrast agents in China is significantly higher than the global level and still maintains a growth trend, and the generic field has greater development potential.
X-ray contrast agents can be subdivided into iodinated X-ray contrast agents and non-iodinated X-ray contrast agents, mainly iodophoresis, barium sulfate, iopamidol, iodixanol, etc., of which iodinated X-ray contrast agents are injectable. X-ray contrast agents have similar application effects as diagnostic reagents, but their safety is more strictly monitored because they need to be injected into the human body.
X-ray contrast agents are mainly used in CT examinations. At present, the per capita ownership of CT equipment in China is still relatively low. With the overall improvement of China's medical level in recent years, the market demand for CT equipment is increasing, which will also drive the rapid development of the X-ray contrast agent industry. Benefiting from the rapid development of China's domestic economy, the demand of Chinese residents for disease diagnosis has increased, driving the demand for contrast agents to climb, and the size of China's contrast agent market has grown.
When we analyze the structure of the contrast agent market, we can find that iodixanol is the product with the highest application demand, accounting for about 36%, followed by iohexol accounting for 20%, with the remaining products such as iopamidol accounting for more than 10%.
Compared with Europe and the United States and other developed countries, China's X-ray contrast agent industry started late, and although the development rate has been faster in recent years, the per capita consumption is still relatively small. Compared with the U.S. X-ray contrast agent per capita consumption of about 11 grams, Europe per capita consumption of about 6 grams, China's contrast agent per capita consumption is only 1-2 grams, which shows that China's X-ray contrast agent per capita consumption is relatively low, and there is a relatively large room for improvement in the future.
Overall the contrast agent market is small, but the industry has high R&D and capital barriers, so there are fewer companies in the market, and the market concentration is high.
Throughout the world, the contrast market is mainly occupied by original drugs, and the proportion of generic drugs does not exceed 20%. The proportion of generic contrast agents in China is significantly higher than the global level, and the trend of growth is maintained year by year, and the field of generic drugs has greater development potential and application prospects.