Medical technology companies’ revenue increases due to telemedicine

The turnover of the medical technology market in Russia in the third quarter of 2023 alone increased by 27% year-on-year, to 10 billion rubles. This segment grew mainly due to telemedicine, where there was an influx of corporate clients, and a number of production of prostheses and aligners (means for correcting bites), whose manufacturers benefited from the departure of an American competitor from Russia. In 2024, experts expect comparable market growth.

Companies in the field of medical technologies in the third quarter of 2023 gained 10.23 billion rubles, according to data from the Smart Ranking agency available to Kommersant. This is 27% more year-on-year and 15% higher than the previous quarter. The fastest growing segment is telemedicine. Sales of companies offering remote medical consultations increased by 50% year-on-year, to RUB 3.76 billion. Their turnover is growing, partly due to the fact that these services are becoming increasingly in demand among corporate clients, Smart Ranking notes. According to the agency, psychotherapy occupies an important place in the segment, but companies are transferring doctors and other specializations online. The growing popularity of telemedicine in Smart Ranking is also noted by Russians who left after the start of the military special operation.

At Doctis, the number of consultations in the third quarter year-on-year increased by more than 10 times due to participation in government programs, the introduction of remote monitoring of patients and other products, notes Sergei Lezhnin, CEO of the group of companies. He calls the demand from corporate clients and VHI programs stable.

SberHealth, psychotherapy services Zigmund.online and Alter confirm an increase in the number of requests from companies. In the third quarter, Zigmund.online began working with several dozen new companies, and the number of requests from them more than tripled, says Egor Isaev, head of the service’s corporate department. He explains this by the increase in business activity in August-September and the desire of companies to take more care of their employees.

At the same time, telemedicine services are rarely included in VHI. SberZdorovye, according to its CEO Denis Shvetsov, does not seek to include its services in voluntary health insurance packages, meeting the needs of corporate clients through comprehensive programs. Egor Isaev says that Zigmund.online at the beginning of 2023 agreed with two insurance companies to include platform services in the VHI package, but ultimately abandoned the partnership due to a number of restrictions, including the number of sessions with psychologists.

Other segments grew more modestly. According to Smart Ranking, the market for medical technology devices increased by 21% to RUB 1.7 billion. The segment leader, prosthetics manufacturer Motorika, increased its revenue year-on-year by 2.8 times, to RUB 362.6 million. The general director of the company, Andrey Davidyuk, explains this, among other things, by the availability of products against the backdrop of logistical difficulties of foreign manufacturers and the growth of the Russian Federation budget for providing citizens with technical means of rehabilitation.

A multiple increase was also observed among some manufacturers of aligners for correcting malocclusion, as follows from Smart Ranking data. The revenue of the Russian Eurokappa more than doubled year-on-year and by 66.7% for Flexiligner. At the same time, sales of other manufacturers – Starsmile, 3D Smile – decreased by 9.2% and 16.2%, respectively. 3D Smile disagrees with the agency’s estimate, saying that aligner sales rose 32% in the third quarter. Russian manufacturers managed to increase revenue after the withdrawal of the most popular aligners in the country, Invisalign from the American Align Technology, from the market. But by 2023, Invisalign was replaced by Spark aligners from the American Ormco, so it became more difficult for local manufacturers, says Startsmile Group President Julia Klouda.

Software developers, according to Smart Ranking, increased revenue by 15%, to approximately 3 billion rubles, companies in the field of research – by 17%, to 1.42 billion rubles. Lab4U, which increased sales by 70%, operates in the yet unsaturated market of online laboratories, notes the owner of the service, Valery Savanovich. He expects a further redistribution of the research market towards online.

According to the forecasts of DSM Group CEO Sergei Shulyak, comparable growth in the medical technology market can be expected in 2024. The expert believes that this will be facilitated by the continuing growth in demand for telemedicine and the focus on import substitution of technologies.

Polina Gritsenko