Plummeting OK Lens Prices Amid National Reimbursement Cuts Drive Ophthalmic Giant Abo Medical to 'Desperate' Acquisition of Sports Medicine Firm: Bold Move or Last Resort?

Reporter Yu Na from chinatimes.net.cn, Beijing

From High Prices of Ten Thousand Yuan to Intense Competition Below a Thousand: OK Lens Procurement Reshapes Industry Landscape.

Recently, Eyebright Medical, a leading domestic player in OK lenses and a top local enterprise in the artificial crystalline lens fieldEyebright Medical(688050.SH) announced that it plans to acquire no less than 51% of Delta Medical (Chongqing) Medical Technology Co., Ltd. ("Delta Medical") through a combination of acquisition loans and its own funds. The overall valuation of the target company is estimated to be no more than 1 billion yuan. Behind this cross-border acquisition lies the harsh reality of the company's core business facing continued pressure.

Impacted by the dual effects of centralized procurement and policy adjustments, Eyebright Medical's net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company declined by 8.64% year-on-year in the first three quarters of 2025, with a nearly 30% drop in net profit in the third quarter alone. Previously, Eyebright Medical had maintained a revenue growth rate of over 30% for five consecutive years from 2020 to 2024, and its non-GAAP net profit surged from 90 million yuan to 390 million yuan.

The centralized procurement has completely broken down the main business's price defense line, while policy adjustments have suppressed product sales, leaving Eyebright Medical trapped in a dual dilemma of declining volume and price. Delta Medical, the target of this cross-industry acquisition, despite having a certain level of technical reserves in the field of sports medicine, remains small in scale with a weak profit foundation. It has also been impacted by centralized procurement and shows low synergy with the ophthalmology sector. Is this acquisition a strategic solution or just a stopgap measure?

Main Business Growth Hits a Reef

The impact of normalized centralized procurement combined with the adjustment of local medical policies has led to an unprecedented growth bottleneck for Eyebright Medical's core ophthalmology business.

The price barrier of the core product, OK lens, has been completely broken by centralized procurement. Eyebright Medical has fallen into an awkward situation where "increased volume does not offset price reduction." The OK lens centralized procurement initiated by the Sanming Procurement Alliance in June 2023 led to a maximum price reduction of 70%, with reductions in the Beijing area ranging between 45% and 60%. The OK lens, which previously cost over ten thousand yuan per pair, has now entered the "thousand-yuan era."

Despite a slight recovery in the orthokeratology (OK) lens market in 2025, Eyebright Medical's OK lens product sales increased by 6% year-on-year in the first three quarters of 2025, with the third quarter achieving a double-digit growth of 12%. However, the significant price decline caused by centralized procurement has led to a severe disconnect between revenue and profit growth. Before the centralized procurement, Eyebright Medical’s OK lens gross margin was as high as 83.95%, similar to the industry-leading enterprises. By the first three quarters of 2025, the company's overall gross margin had dropped to 64.80%, with the OK lens business gross margin falling by more than 18 percentage points year-on-year, becoming the core factor dragging down overall profitability.

A senior practitioner in the ophthalmology industry told reporters from the China Times that the current penetration rate of the orthokeratology (OK) lens market in China is only about 1.6%. While this may seem to indicate growth potential, against the backdrop of already rock-bottom prices and intensifying industry competition, it is highly unlikely that Eyebright Medical can stimulate further market expansion through additional price reductions. This also implies that the OK lens business, which once contributed high gross margins, will find it difficult to return to its golden era of high growth in the future.

Another core product of Eyebright Medical, the intraocular lens business, is in an even more challenging situation. Long before the centralized procurement of orthokeratology lenses, intraocular lenses had already experienced price cuts due to procurement policies. Eyebright Medical has yet to fully absorb this impact, and the slight decline in the overall cataract surgery volume in 2025 has further pushed the "trade price for volume" strategy to the brink of failure. Against the backdrop of the DRG/DIP payment system and refined medical insurance controls, the revenue contribution of Eyebright Medical's intraocular lens business has continuously shrunk from 81.78% at the end of 2020, dropping further to 41.68% in 2024, and stabilizing at around 43.86% in the first half of 2025. Coupled with the downward price pressure following centralized procurement, this business has fallen into a dual dilemma of low profit margins and minimal growth.

Notably, Eyebright Medical's domestically produced first multi-focal intraocular lens "Pronome FullView" has shown rapid growth, but its market share remains small. The high-end intraocular lens market is still dominated by foreign companies, with procurement demands for categories such as bifocal toric and extended depth of focus almost entirely met by foreign brands. The aforementioned senior practitioner in the ophthalmology industry stated that under the pressure of medical insurance cost control, the use of self-paid consumables in hospitals is restricted. The promotion of high-end intraocular lenses relies heavily on doctors' recommendations, while foreign brands have accumulated strong advantages in optical quality and clinical reputation. Local companies face significant challenges in breaking through, and Eyebright Medical’s path to upgrading its product structure may be difficult to achieve in the short term.

To enrich its business layout, the company previously acquired Tianyan Pharmaceuticals and Fujian Younikang to build an invisible eyewear industry chain. Although this business generated revenue of 236 million yuan in the first half of 2025, surging 28.89% year-on-year, and accounting for 30.06% of total revenue, becoming a potential growth driver, its gross margin of 27.76% is much lower than that of intraocular lenses (86.42%) and orthokeratology lenses (84.76%), failing to fully offset the decline in core businesses.

Under Multiple Pressures, Eyebright Medical Achieves Revenue of 1.144 Billion Yuan in the First Three Quarters of 2025, a Year-on-Year Increase of Only 6.43%; Net Profit Attributable to Shareholders of the Listed Company is 290 Million Yuan, a Year-on-Year Decrease of 8.64%. Notably, the Net Profit in the Third Quarter Decreased by 29.85% Year-on-Year. The Persistent Downturn in the Core Business has Become the Core Motivation for Eyebright Medical's Urgent Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions.

Hidden Concerns of Cross-Border M&A

Against the backdrop of its main business growth hitting a snag, Eyebright Medical has chosen to make a cross-border acquisition of Delta Medical in an attempt to create a new point of performance growth. However, considering the qualifications of the target, the industry environment, and business synergy, this merger and acquisition may not be a panacea.

In terms of its own qualifications, although Delta Medical was selected for Group A in the fourth round of China's national high-value medical consumables procurement, it is not a leading benchmark in the industry, with both scale and profitability at a medium level. Financial data shows that from 2023 to 2025, Delta Medical's revenues were 178 million yuan, 236 million yuan, and 286 million yuan respectively, while adjusted net profits were -7.0782 million yuan, 9.2937 million yuan, and 23.6023 million yuan respectively. Despite turning losses into profits, there remains a gap compared to top peers in the industry.

More notably, this transaction comes with stringent performance commitments. The founder of Delta Medical has pledged that the cumulative audited net profit for 2026–2028 will reach 165 million yuan (with annual targets of 45 million yuan, 55 million yuan, and 65 million yuan, respectively). This represents more than a doubling of the adjusted net profit of 23.6023 million yuan in 2025, and achieving this will be no small feat. If the targets are not met, the founder must transfer the corresponding equity at zero cost or the lowest price.

Despite the considerable growth rate in the sports medicine sector, with the domestic market size in China estimated at RMB 6 billion–6.8 billion in 2023, projected to increase to RMB 8 billion–10 billion by 2025, and expected to exceed RMB 13 billion by 2030, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of approximately 15%–20%, the market ceiling remains relatively low, making it difficult to meet Eyebright Medical's urgent need for performance growth. Additionally, the industry is dominated by foreign firms, with international brands such as Smith & Nephew and Johnson & Johnson collectively holding about 80% of the market share, while Chinese-produced brands account for only 8%–10%. Moreover, Delta Medical’s core products have been included in the national centralized procurement program, with an average price reduction of 74%, leaving limited room for "trading price for volume."

Moreover, the obstructed listing path for sports medicine companies has become an industry phenomenon. Tianxing Medical's STAR Market IPO was terminated due to the sponsor withdrawing sponsorship, after which it shifted to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. After Ruijian Medical’s coaching registration, there was no further news. Delta Medical, with a smaller scale and weaker profitability, is far from meeting the listing requirements of the STAR Market; its bleak prospects for going public might be a significant reason for choosing to be acquired.

The most critical hidden danger lies in the synergy between the ophthalmology and sports medicine sectors. Cao Ning, a partner at a healthcare management consulting firm, told the China Times that Eyebright Medical has deeply cultivated the ophthalmology field for many years but lacks technical accumulation, talent reserve, and channel resources in the sports medicine field. Moreover, its previous unsuccessful crossover into medical aesthetics has already exposed its shortcomings in cross-industry operations. This acquisition of Delta Medical will most likely face integration challenges. Although Eyebright Medical expressed intentions in 2022 to extend into the orthopedics field and even cooperated on the research and development of a fish-derived rotator cuff biological patch, it is foreseeable that Eyebright Medical, with its long-term focus on ophthalmology, will face considerable difficulty in effectively managing and empowering Delta Medical.

Under the叠加of multiple risks, Eyebright Medical's cross-border并购this time appears more like a无奈move amid the困境of its main business. Cao Ning stated that Delta Medical has a small规模, weak盈利, and the sports medicine track is monopolized by foreign资本and pressured by集中采购. Coupled with the performance commitment pressure of 165 million yuan, the业绩increment it can contribute to Eyebright Medical is有限. Instead, it may挤占the research and operation funds of the main business. Delta Medical’s technical reserves and overseas channels have some value, but whether they can be转化为actual performance increments and whether协同points can be挖掘with the main business remains highly不确定.

Editor: Jiang Yuqing, Chief Editor: Chen Yanpeng