Ying Tai Medical's $710M Ambition: Is China's 'Terumo' Rising Through Mega Acquisition of WellStrong Medical?

May 26, 2025 19:05 CST Updated 19:05

INT Medical

Medical Device R&D, Production, and Sales Company

Wei Qiang Medical

Vascular Interventional Device R&D and Manufacturer

▲ Source of the article: Medical Device Innovation Network

▲Please indicate the above source at the beginning of the article when reprinting.

Recently, Shanghai INT Medical Instruments Co., Ltd. (Stock Code: HK1501) partnered with a specialized M&A fund under Shanghai Science and Technology Venture Capital Co., Ltd. ("Shanghai Sci-Tech Investment Fund") to officially sign an equity acquisition agreement with relevant shareholders of Hangzhou Wei Qiang Medical Technology Co., Ltd. ("Wei Qiang Medical").

According to the agreement,INT Medical and Shanghai Sci-Tech Investment FundProposed to acquire existing sharesAcquired a total of over 81% equity in Wei Qiang Medical for a total consideration of approximately RMB 513 million.INT Medical acquired more than 51% controlling interest in Wei Qiang Medical for 324 million yuan.Become the new owner of this star enterprise combining medicine and engineering.

This acquisition had already shown signs as early as December 2024, when INT Medical and Wei Qiang Medical signed a letter of intent for the acquisition. Now, it has finally been settled.

Why Did the "Technical Stream" of Medical-Engineering Integration Sell Out?

Wei Qiang Medical was founded in 2018, focusing on the field of cardiovascular intervention. Its product line covers full-cycle solutions for both intraoperative and postoperative periods.The core advantage of the company lies in "the combination of medical and engineering" — product design deeply integrates feedback from clinical doctors, such as the high-precision consumables like coronary interventional catheters and guidewires that have already been marketed.Currently, four endovascular interventional treatment products have been approved for the "13th Five-Year Plan" National Key Research and Development Project, and four products have been granted access to China's Innovative Medical Device Approval "Green Channel."

However, this technically solid company chose to "sell itself."

The main reasons are intensified industry competition and capital pressure. In recent years, giants like LePu and MicroPort have entered the cardiovascular intervention sector, while the centralized procurement policy has reshaped prices, leading to high R&D costs for small and medium-sized enterprises and difficulty in market penetration.

According to the announcement disclosed by INT Medical, as of December 31, 2024,Wei Qiang Medical's net profit after tax is -58.25 million yuan, and its net asset value is -61.48 million yuan.In a state of continuous losses and negative net assets. This means that the company had fallen into insolvency before the acquisition, and its ability to continue operations was highly dependent on external capital injection.

It is worth noting that,Wei Qiang Medical once obtained a loan of 20 million yuan in 2020 through intellectual property rights pledge to alleviate financial pressure.At the time of this acquisition, the company had still not reversed its losses.

From this perspective, although Wei Qiang Medical possesses core technology, it lacks the ability for scaled expansion. Introducing strategic investors has become an essential choice for survival and breakthrough.

Bidding War: INT Medical's Winning Logic

After the news of Wei Qiang Medical's sale was exposed, a fierce bidding war immediately broke out. A large number of investors flocked to the scene, including industry giants. There were even rumors that...Top foreign enterprise Medtronic has also shown strong interest in Wei Qiang Medical, and there were once "rumors" about the two.

However, this bidding drama ultimately ended with INT Medical's victory.

It is worth mentioning that, from a certain perspective, this acquisitionIt is an unconventional acquisition of a "big product" company by a company mainly focused on "small products."

INT Medical previously started with interventional accessories such as pressure pumps, angiography catheters, Y-valves, angiography guidewires, and catheter sheaths—traditionally considered low-value consumables. In contrast, Wei Qiang Medical's products lean more towards the high-value sector, making this acquisition a cross-border capital operation.

For INT Medical, this acquisition is of great significance:

Complete Product Matrix:

INT Medical previously started with "low-value consumables" in the interventional pathway, while Wei Qiang Medical's vascular interventional devices are "major products" with high profit margins and high technical barriers. After the acquisition, INT Medical can directly enter the field of cardiac interventional therapy.

Accelerate Domestic Substitution:

The high-end cardiovascular intervention market has long been monopolized by foreign capital. The combination of Wei Qiang Medical's innovative products and INT Medical's channel network is expected to break the import barrier.

Response to the Impact of Centralized Procurement:

Centralized procurement has compressed the profit margins of low-value consumables, and INT Medical needs to enhance its profitability through technological upgrades. Wei Qiang Medical's high-value product line is the key focus.

INT Medical's Ambition: From "Component Supplier" to "China Terumo"?

INT Medical's 2024 financial report shows that its annual revenue reached 852 million yuan, with a net profit of 190 million yuan, and the gross profit margin climbed to 63.11%. As the "hidden champion" in the interventional pathway consumables field, INT Medical’s performance growth undoubtedly benefited from the strong tailwind of China-produced alternatives. However, behind these impressive figures, concerns are also lurking.

The company is highly dependent on interventional access consumables,The centralized procurement policy has led to a price reduction of over 60% for some products.At the end of last year, Gansu Province took the lead for the first time in a 24-province alliance to conduct bulk procurement of peripheral vascular interventional consumables. According to industry insiders, "The prices of microcatheters and microguidewires have hit rock bottom, dropping to around a hundred yuan; embolic microspheres have fallen to over a thousand yuan, the results were very surprising."

Under the dual pressures of price and cost control, some companies are even operating at a loss for the sake of appearances...

Against this background,INT Medical seems to be following the growth path of Japan's Terumo:Building on low-value consumables and extending to high-value devices through acquisitions, achieving a magnificent transformation for the company from "small and specialized" to "large and powerful."

This RMB 513 million large-scale acquisition not only represents the convergence of the destinies of two enterprises but also serves as a microcosm of the reshaping landscape of China's medical device industry. Against the backdrop of accelerating localization and the normalization of centralized procurement policies, the trend of medical device companies expanding their business scope through mergers and acquisitions to consolidate resources has become increasingly evident.

Can INT Medical Successfully Achieve Strategic Transformation After Acquiring Wei Qiang Medical? What Chain Reactions Will It Bring to China’s Domestic Medical Device Industry? Feel Free to Share Your Thoughts in the Comment Section and Let’s Discuss the Future of China’s Domestic Medical Device Industry Together!

Source of Materials: Publicly Available Online Information

Note: The above content is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice. The interpretation of official policies in this article represents the views of this platform, and the content is subject to official documents. If any platform reprints this article, it must take responsibility for the content of the article itself and is not responsible for any impact caused by secondary dissemination after reprinting.

If you like it, click "Watch" before you go.