On December 30, 2019, Dr. Li Wenliang issued a test report of "SARA Coronavirus High Confidence Positive Indicator" in the group of classmates, reminding everyone to pay attention to protection. At that time, few people expected that the upcoming 2020 would be a year of the new crown pneumonia epidemic.
Now, this long year has come to an end. Some say it's been "the worst year"; Some had hoped for a restart this year; Some people are waiting for this year to hurry up and "turn the page"; There are also people who try to "live" during the year.
In the field of medical and health care, 2020 is also an "extraordinary" year. From the outbreak of the new crown epidemic to the vaccine competition in various countries, from the Internet medical outlet to the boom of biomedical listing, from the procurement of high-value consumables to the negotiation of medical insurance, etc., there have been challenges and opportunities this year, and every important moment in the process is quietly changing the pattern of the medical and health field.
At the end of the year, we have taken stock of the top 10 major events in the medical and health field in the past year. Now, let's start this "annual memory" together.
01 The outbreak of the new crown epidemic
On January 23, 2020, on the occasion of the Chinese New Year, Wuhan was locked down as the number of confirmed cases of new coronavirus pneumonia increased. Subsequently, the whole people joined the fight against the epidemic, including many enterprises in the medical and health field, and everyone "contributed money, effort, and materials" to contribute their own strength.
On April 8, after 76 days, Wuhan ushered in the moment of unblocking. The high-speed toll station, railway station, and airport closed doors were opened at the same time, and the life that was pressed the "pause button" began to operate again.
In the fight against the new crown epidemic, there have also been batches of "anti-epidemic heroes". On September 8, the National Commendation Conference for Fighting the New Coronary Pneumonia Epidemic awarded Academician Zhong Nanshan the "Medal of the Republic", and Zhang Boli, Zhang Dingyu and Chen Wei were awarded the national honorary title of "People's Heroes".
Globally, however, the pandemic is far from over. According to the data, the cumulative number of confirmed new crown patients in the world has exceeded 80 million, and the cumulative number of deaths has exceeded 1.7 million. This became the most serious public health event in the last 100 years, and the death toll exceeded that of World War II.
02 A new breakthrough in the entry of "Internet +" medical services into medical insurance
Driven by the new crown epidemic, Internet medical care has also ushered in another outbreak. At the beginning of 2020, Internet medical platforms launched special consultation areas for new crown pneumonia, which not only increased the number of consultations sharply, but also gained a large number of users.
The policy has also given positive support. In November 2020, the official website of the National Health Insurance Administration issued the "Guiding Opinions on Actively Promoting the Medical Insurance Payment of "Internet +" Medical Services, clarifying the specific content of "Internet +" medical services into medical insurance payment, and institutions that carry out "Internet +" medical services can apply to sign medical insurance designation agreements, and implement fair medical insurance payment policies for online and offline medical services.
As a result, Internet medical insurance payment has entered the real landing stage.
03 Vaccine R&D Competition
As the "ultimate weapon" to eradicate the virus, the research and development of the new crown vaccine has also been carried out throughout 2020.
The new crown vaccine is mainly divided into five categories: nucleic acid vaccine, inactivated vaccine, live attenuated vaccine, recombinant protein vaccine, and viral vector vaccine. At present, the research and development of new crown vaccines in various countries has shown a competitive situation. According to the World Health Organization, as of November, more than 200 new crown vaccines have been developed in countries around the world, of which 48 are in human clinical trials, and 7 vaccines have entered early use.
Overseas, at present, Moderna, Pfizer, BioNTech and other companies have successively announced the effectiveness rate data of their new crown vaccine candidates, such as Pfizer and Moderna, both claiming to have an effective rate of more than 90%; In China, a total of 15 vaccines have entered clinical trials under 5 technical routes, of which 5 new coronavirus vaccines are in phase III clinical trials, which are in the first phalanx in the world.
04 Biomedical IPO boom
2020 is also a big year for IPOs of biopharmaceutical companies. During the epidemic, more attention has been paid to biomedicine, which has also accelerated the capitalization process of related enterprises.
For example, on December 4, three biopharmaceutical companies rang the bell and went public on the NASDAQ in the United States. According to data, as of December 8, 2020, 72 biopharmaceutical companies have been listed on the NASDAQ this year, and the number of annual listings has hit a new high in the total number of IPOs of biopharmaceutical companies in the past five years.
In China, data shows that as of November 25, 2020, a total of 61 companies in the healthcare sector have achieved IPOs, an increase of 48% compared with 2019. Among them, 48 chose to land on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, accounting for nearly 80%, including CanSino, Shenzhou Cell, etc.; There are also many companies listed in Hong Kong, such as InnoCare, JW Therapeutics, Remegen Biologics, etc.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that a number of medical and health companies have successfully achieved secondary listings this year, including Fudan Zhangjiang, Junshi Biosciences, CanSino, Zai Lab, etc., many of which have chosen to be listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board for secondary listings.
05 AstraZeneca's US$39 billion acquisition of Arribrother Pharmaceutical
On December 12, 2020, AstraZeneca announced that it will acquire American pharmaceutical company Alexion for $39 billion, and the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021. Upon completion of the transaction, Aleebrother will own 15% of the combined company, and AstraZeneca will have access to Arligo's complement technology platform and a division dedicated to the development of rare disease drugs. This is the largest acquisition by AstraZeneca since its inception and the largest acquisition in the healthcare sector this year.
With two complement C5 monoclonal antibodies, Soliris, and long-acting C5 monoclonal antibody, UItomiris, Arion Brothers has established itself as a leader in the field of rare diseases. The acquisition of AstraZeneca will work with the R&D team of Aspiro to build on Alevon's 11 molecular pipeline and conduct more than 20 clinical development programs across various indications, rare diseases and other diseases.
06 Alzheimer's disease: Aducanumab with twists and turns
Due to the impact of the pandemic, in April 2020, biogen announced that the marketing application for aducanumab was postponed from the first quarter to the third quarter. Aducanumab is a monoclonal antibody that targeted the Aβ protein, and early studies found that it reduced the accumulation of Aβ protein in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease. Biogen has initiated a clinical study that started in 2015 and is scheduled to end in 2020.
On October 22, Biogen announced that it plans to submit a marketing application for aducanumab after communicating with the U.S. FDA. On November 3, the application for marketing authorization of aducanumab was accepted by the EMA; On November 4, the FDA's internal review opinion was positive.
Interestingly, however, only a few days later, at the FDA's advisory committee of external experts on aducanumab, almost all of the outside experts gave negative reviews. In addition, external experts also bluntly said that the FDA lacked professionalism and found them puzzling by the positive internal review opinions given before.
07 The first Class III medical device for artificial intelligence in China was approved
On January 15, 2020, the State Food and Drug Administration issued the first medical AI Class III certificate in China: Shenzhen Keya Medical Technology Co., Ltd.'s "Deep Pulse Score" product.
Since then, three types of artificial intelligence medical device certificates for medical AI companies, including Lepu Medical, Inference Technology, Shukun Technology, United Imaging Intelligence, Shenrui Medical, etc., have also been approved, covering ECG analysis software AI, cardiac coronary stenosis AI, CT-based fracture medical AI, lung AI, etc. According to the data, in 2020, the NMPA has passed the review of AI medical devices by 8 companies, with a total of 9 products, which will become mature products for market use after clinical trials.
Therefore, 2020 is also considered a critical year for medical AI business breakthroughs.
08 DRGs/DIP big stride
On June 18, the National Health Security Administration issued the "Notice on the Subdivision Group of Medical Security Disease Diagnosis Related Grouping (CHS-DRG) (Version 1.0)", and by November, the National Health Insurance Administration said that it was organizing an evaluation of the simulated operation of DRGs in 30 pilot cities, and said that it would strive to take the lead in 30 national pilot cities in 2021 to start actual payment.
At the same time, in October 2020, the National Health Insurance Administration also issued the "Pilot Work Plan for the Total Budget of the Regional Point Method and the Payment of Disease Scores", which officially proposed the DIP payment method according to the disease type, and clearly required that it would take 1-2 years to combine the overall regional medical insurance total budget with the point method to realize the multiple composite payment methods based on the payment of disease points for hospitalization. In November, the National Health Insurance Administration released a list of pilot cities for payment according to disease scores, involving 71 cities in 27 provinces and cities.
In general, both DRGs and DIP are important means of medical insurance cost control, and medical insurance will further move towards refined management in the future.
09 High-value consumables with volume procurement: coronary stents reduced by 93%
On November 5, 2020, China's first batch of high-value medical consumables centralized procurement was opened in Tianjin, and coronary stents were the first negotiated varieties for centralized procurement. The centralized procurement produced 10 products to be selected, and the average price of the bracket dropped from about 13,000 yuan to about 700 yuan, with an average decrease of 93%.
As soon as the results came out, the instrument circle exploded. Some people lamented that "coronary stents are no longer as expensive as pots", and some industry insiders pointed out that "overnight, the 15 billion metal stent market evaporated 10 billion".
However, this is only the beginning, and the second batch of high-value consumables is already on the way.
10 PD-1 Medicare Negotiations
On December 14, 2020, the fifth round of the three-day national health insurance negotiations was launched in Beijing. PD-1 is the highlight of the medical insurance negotiations, and as soon as the negotiations are over, news about the results of the PD-1 negotiations will immediately fly all over the sky.
However, as in 2019, no one guessed the outcome of the PD-1 medical insurance negotiations this year. Industry speculation generally believes that the PD-1 product negotiation between Hengrui Pharmaceutical and BeiGene was successful, and foreign companies were wiped out, and few people are optimistic about Junshi Biosciences.
Judging from the final official results, foreign companies were indeed wiped out, but local PD-1 pharmaceutical companies, including Junshi Biosciences, were all included in the medical insurance.
Source: Health Circles