In 2021, healthcare investment experienced a visible climax. Whether it is the primary market or the secondary market, medical care has become the mantra of many investors. At the beginning of 2022, even hard technology and specialized special new (see the beginning of 2022 has gone crazy, and the explosive hard technology has opened a "volume") has not been able to steal the heat of the medical industry. Judging from the cross-industry investment data, medical investment is still in the first place.
Since the drug review reform in 2015, there have been many rounds of investment opportunities in the medical industry. The collection of generic drugs, the collection of instruments, the impact of the epidemic, and the negotiation of medical insurance introduced after 2018 have more or less catalyzed the investment enthusiasm of the medical industry.
In 2022, the reform of DRG/DIP payment methods will be fully promoted, and non-standard medical insurance expenditure will withdraw from the historical stage. Investment Montić (ID: tzmengtaiqi) has been exposed to a considerable number of projects mainly on medical cost control. The epidemic has made nucleic acid testing and vaccine appointments a national topic again, and the relevant reform of medical insurance is also in full swing in this context.
Most of the medical investors who invested in Montiqi (ID: tzmengtaiqi) are optimistic about the future development of CXO, medical services, upstream equipment and consumables. According to the data provided by the TMTBase database of Titanium Media, there are also quite a few APIs and life science services.
Therefore, in 2022, for medical investment, it is still mainly characterized by full blossoming and a hundred schools of thought.
Precision medicine is being rediscovered
Precision medicine is a method of disease prevention and treatment that takes into account the differences in personal genes, environment and living habits, compared with modern medicine, precision medicine pays more attention to the deep characteristics of "disease" and the high precision of "medicine". Precision medicine is a new medical concept and medical model developed under the background of rapid progress of gene sequencing technology and the cross-application of bioinformatics and big data science.
In 2022, the value of precision medicine will be rediscovered. In this field, gene sequencing accounts for a large proportion. As the forefront of today's anti-cancer fight, precision medicine shoulders the dual mission of clarifying the limitations and side effects of treatment methods and creating new treatment methods.
In addition, precision medicine has become an integral part of the national strategic emerging industry. In Shenzhen, there has recently been a frenzy of "digging doctors". In fact, precision medicine has its own internal logic in 2022 - that is, after experiencing the development of large-scale biological sample databases, powerful omics and medical technology, computing tools and big data, precision medicine has the conditions to land, which gives the majority of primary market investors and entrepreneurs a valuable window of entrepreneurial time.
In the field of medical and health care, Sequoia China's influence runs throughout. According to data, since investing its first project in the medical and health field in 2006, Sequoia China has invested more than 180 projects in the past 15 years and harvested nearly 30 IPOs.
Sequoia has always had the ability to "grasp leading projects in value segments", and in addition to having a large layout in precision medicine, it has also invested in projects such as Beijing Kyoto Children's Hospital, Zhibei Medical, Penguin Almond, Penguin Doctor, Jinxin Reproduction, Asian Medical Center, Shengnuojia and so on.
The popularity of precision medicine is not accidental, in the 2022 series of articles, investing in Montiqi (ID: tzmengtaiqi) will bring more investor views in the primary market.
However, rationally, the future development of precision medicine will also depend on the degree of progress in collaborative technologies including but not limited to sensors, remote monitoring of patients, the Internet of Things, electronic health records (EHRs), genetic databases, machine learning, and cloud computing.
It is worth saying that 2022 will still be a "big year" for the medical industry.
Model medical project "cold"
Model medical projects shined in 2015. A few years later, the logic of the track began to change. In recent years, Internet hospitals have begun to take the stage, and paid consultations, electronic prescriptions, and online drug purchases have begun to become the mainstream Internet + medical company profit model.
However, from the perspective of the investment direction of the head institution in 2021-2022, the "classical version" of the model medical company began to go out of the eyes of the investors. In its place, there is a sudden rise in "consumer medicine".
In previous years, the boundaries between health and medical treatment had begun to blur. The light of the subdivision track represented by consumer medical care (generally referring to the user's active treatment) masks serious medical treatment (generally refers to the passive treatment of users). Oral, medical aesthetics, and physical examination began to become the mainstream, and the verticalization of the industry began to proceed.
As a vertical track that is not affected by medical insurance control fees, for a period of time, new model medical enterprises have attracted the attention of investors. In this field, there are a large number of new star companies. For example, optometry, light medical beauty, new rehabilitation, new Chinese medicine, and new psychology have become the "fragrant food" of investors.
Among them, in the ophthalmic track, wearable smart devices represented by functional glasses such as AI glasses and goggles have become the dark horses of the industry, and investment in Montiqi observed that in these areas, head institutions such as Sequoia China, IDG Capital, Hillhouse Group and so on have paid attention.
One clear trend is that consumer healthcare companies may be moving away from the sight of early investors. In terms of the trend of model or consumer health care, the momentum of more technical and harder technology is obvious. Sequoia China has invested in Ophthalmic gene therapy drug company Newfoss, and this is also happening at Hillhouse Group and IDG Capital.
As a leading global private equity investor that has been in China for 25 years, IDG Capital has been on its medical investment journey since 2006 and is one of the earliest investment institutions in the Chinese market to focus on the medical field. As can be seen from the investment cases in January 2021-2022, it is almost impossible to find traditional consumer medical projects.
In fact, there is a real reason why investors are pessimistic about the outlook for consumer healthcare. Under the influence of the epidemic, in recent years, the consumer medical industry is facing customer acquisition problems. The dividends of each link are gradually disappearing, and the conversion effect is declining; in addition, a large number of unfilled customers/unrechased customers have not been continuously and accurately followed up, and customers are constantly losing, which also brings difficulties to maintenance.
In terms of model, there have also been many criticisms in the industry. Some well-known people in the industry have shelled that the so-called Internet medical companies are actually the skin of the "SP" business. In his view, Internet medical companies cannot solve the problem of scarcity of medical resources, and in the essence of the business model, it is nothing more than a backflow for hospitals or doctors.
As far as the phenomenon observed by investing in Montić is concerned, such logic applies in the fields of medical aesthetics, dentistry, and ophthalmology. That is to say, in the model medical treatment, users are not scarce resources, how to combine with the use of medical scenarios to ensure a high-quality user experience, is still a permanent problem in the industry.
Frontier Medical is still in the high research and development stage
Compared with the projects of foreign investment institutions, in recent years, in the mainstream track, China and the United States have basically kept pace. In the secondary market, the upstream industry of life sciences becomes a high-light track. Due to the blessing of hard technology and specialized new technology, the equipment, consumables and raw materials of life sciences have become the trend and direction that capital values more.
Among the listed companies, there are companies such as Dongfulong, Nano Micro Technology, Haoyuan Pharmaceutical, etc., and in terms of reagents, there are Yihao Shenzhou, Baipusaisi, and Nuoweizan.
In the market, companies in the field of innovative drugs are still enjoying valuation premiums. For institutions such as head investors, mRNA, protein degradation, gene editing, etc. continue to be hot.
The good news is that at present, domestic pharmaceutical companies are ushering in a golden period of development, and in the past, it was almost impossible for Chinese pharmaceutical companies to participate in the international clinical trial of a drug at the first time. But these years of policy reforms have turned the tide, and China is playing an increasingly important role in the global pharmaceutical R&D ecosystem.
However, calmly speaking, the frontier medical field will still be in a cycle of high research and development and low return for a long time. Investment is difficult, and similar to the view mentioned above, this field still depends on the maturity of CXO and upstream auxiliary industries.
In 2021, medical outsourcing once became the focus of the conversation. Compared with similar overseas enterprises, the domestic pharmaceutical outsourcing industry has significant advantages in terms of business system and talent density, and it is expected to maintain rapid growth.
In addition, domestic alternative medical devices are also the key industries for primary market investors to observe. Among them, there are entrepreneurial opportunities in pacemakers, electrophysiology, nerve interventional spring coils, implants, intraocular lenses, orthokeratology lenses, disposable ultrasound knives, and neurointerventional embolic stents.
Editor & Author| Yuan Jing
Cartography & Collation | Guo Honghong and Zhang Yinan