Dongshi Aier Eye Hospital, Guangdong Province.
Old Man Lu walked into the consulting room tremblingly with the support of his son.
The doctor greeted with a smile: "Mr. Lu, you are here again. How are you thinking this time?"
Old Man Lu sat down, sighed, and began to complain: "Hey, my eyesight is getting worse and worse now. I can't see anything clearly. I can't even recognize acquaintances on the street when they come face to face."
"It sounds more serious than last time. Let me check it out for you."
The doctor checked it carefully and concluded: "Your naked eye vision is only 0.1 now, and the lenses of both eyes are cloudy. This is a typical senile cataract, and there is also corneal astigmatism. I am afraid that only surgery can completely solve it."
Old Man Lu's face turned ugly: "I'm only in my fifties. I'm probably not old enough for surgery at this age. Can't I take medicine for treatment?"
The doctor shook his head: "You are now very serious. You need to implant an intraocular lens to be completely cured. Drugs cannot cure it. I have communicated this to you and your family before. This disease must be dealt with as soon as possible. You cannot delay it, otherwise it will be later." The worse the surgery will be."
Old Man Lu was still a little reluctant: "But I haven't reached 60 yet. Do I have to live with a pair of artificial eyes from now on?"
The doctor patiently advised: "Cataract surgery is a routine operation. It is very simple and mature. It only takes ten minutes to complete. The postoperative effect is also very good. The patient's prognosis is absolutely fine. He can see clearly immediately and it lasts for a long time." .”
He took out a thick stack of medical cases from the drawer, which contained photos of patients after surgery.
"Look, these are all patients who have undergone surgery. They are all in good condition now. After the intraocular lens is implanted, it is difficult to tell from the appearance. It is no different from normal people, and there will be no presbyopia or glaucoma in the future. Problem. It can be said to be solved once and for all.”
Old Man Lu seemed a little tempted: "What kind of artificial lenses are there? What's the price?"
The doctor's eyes shone and he explained with a smile on his face: "Intraocular lenses can be divided into many types according to their different materials and functions. Different intraocular lenses have different prices."
"Currently, they are generally divided into hard and soft intraocular lenses. The price of hard intraocular lenses is about 1,000 yuan, and they are generally domestic brands. As for soft intraocular lenses, they are all imported and divided into three types: monofocal, bifocal and trifocal. The price is usually around 10,000 yuan. If other anti-astigmatism or depth-of-field extension technologies are added, the price will be higher, probably 20,000 to 30,000 yuan.”
"Because you have corneal astigmatism, if you want to be completely lens-free after surgery, you must use an astigmatism-correcting trifocal lens to obtain long-lasting and stable clear vision throughout the postoperative period. At the same time, we can also combine your postoperative vision requirements. , what do you think of the customized and personalized surgical plan?"
"In terms of price, the intraocular lens for both eyes plus the cost of surgery is about 60,000 yuan."
"Okay, okay, it sounds very powerful." Old Man Lu was very excited when he heard this. He turned to his son and said, "How about we try this surgery?"
However, the son did not agree, but asked instead: "Dad, you have to think carefully about the surgery. You can't regret it after taking out the lens. What will happen if something goes wrong? There's no way to put it back in. Your eyes will be damaged." Blind."
These words made Old Lu's face fall down.
The son turned around and asked the doctor again: "Can't this disease be cured by taking medicine?"
The smile on the doctor's face suddenly disappeared, and he said with a straight face: "You may not know that there is currently no specific drug for cataracts. Many drugs on the market that claim to be able to treat cataracts can only slow down the development of the early stage of the disease. If it has developed to a serious To the extent that it affects vision, like your father’s, there is no way to reverse it with drugs, and the only way to cure it is to replace the intraocular lens through surgery.”
"Let me explain to you, the cause of cataracts is mainly the turbidity caused by the deterioration of protein in the lens, from transparent to opaque, which affects the passage of light and causes people to lose vision."
"This protein denaturation in the lens is an irreversible process, just like an egg white turns into protein when heated, and the protein cannot turn back into egg white no matter what. Likewise, once the lens develops a cataract, no matter what medications are used, Denatured proteins cannot be restored to their original clarity."
The son thought about it carefully and said with a smile: "I understand, so that's how it is."
Then he asked again: "I heard that Sanqing has released a special cataract medicine called Cataract Clearing. It is said to be very effective. Can you prescribe a course of treatment for my dad to try first?"
The doctor's face changed, and he said with a bit of hatred: "Hey, you kid, don't search for random news on the Internet. Medical treatment is about this, you still have to listen to the doctor's opinion. Your father's disease can only be cured by taking medicine." If it's bad, only surgery can cure it. Don't worry about the money. Curing the disease is the most important thing."
The son smiled and said: "Well, I think Sanqing is the most powerful pharmaceutical company in the country, and the medicines it produces are trustworthy. Since you think surgery is necessary, then I'd better consider it again. .”
When Old Man Lu heard Sanqing's name, he exclaimed in surprise: "Sanqing, it can cure cancer, even small cataracts. Doctor, hurry up and prescribe me some special medicine from Sanqing." "
The doctor's face instantly turned ugly: "No, I don't have this medicine here. You can prescribe it elsewhere."
Old Man Lu suddenly became unhappy: "Hey, isn't this an eye hospital? How can you prescribe no medicine? Do you just do surgery? Isn't that a scam?"
The son quickly reached out to help him up and pulled him out of the door: "Dad, don't be angry. Let's switch to another doctor to prescribe medicine."
Old Man Lu cursed and left: "Humph, it's a black-hearted hospital. It only knows how to cheat money. If it wasn't close to home, I wouldn't come here to see a doctor."
The doctor sat there with his nose crooked in anger.
It took him a while to recover, and he dialed the phone angrily: "Hey, this won't work. Now when the patient comes, he doesn't agree to an operation. He says he needs to take medicine for treatment, but he leaves even if he doesn't prescribe medicine. What happened today? It’s already the third wave, and if this continues, the hospital will have to close sooner or later.”
"I know it's just cataract. Other eye diseases still require surgery, but cataract surgery has the largest number of operations. IOLs are so expensive and the profits are huge. How can the profits of other surgeries be so high? This income is gone. How much more can you get every month?”
"Hurry up and think of a way. This damn Sanqing, is it going to overthrow the entire intraocular lens industry? We didn't mess with it, we just performed a normal operation, why did it end up like this?"
"Damn it, he sells it so cheaply that we have no profit at all from selling the medicine. He is not giving us a way to survive."
"Okay, okay, I understand. Since the dean said he will find a solution, I will wait."
After hanging up the phone, the doctor opened the drawer bitterly, threw all the cases in, and sat in a chair in a daze.
Cataract is a common eye disease, the No. 1 common blinding eye disease, and one of the largest sources of surgeries in their hospital.
Aier Eye Hospital is an ophthalmology empire worth hundreds of billions. It performs hundreds of thousands of cataract surgeries every year. If all this revenue is cut off, it will be a disaster. What will happen to the hospital then? He simply cannot even think about it. .
He was very confused now, with a sense of helplessness about the uncertainty of fate, as if a tiny ant was walking on the road, and suddenly a pot of boiling water fell from the sky, scooping up all the ants in one pot, leaving him with no time to react.
However, he is only the lowest level affected by the cataract suspension. Ophthalmologists like him have only lost part of their income and do not need to worry about survival for the time being.
At this moment, the boss of Aier Eye Hospital and the intraocular lens manufacturer are the ones who have the biggest headache.
As more and more cataract patients use Sanqing's new drugs and their conditions improve, the drug's reputation begins to grow and spread across the country through patient groups.
Every patient group is communicating about the therapeutic effects of this new drug, and everyone is very excited.
Sanqing already has a resounding new nickname in their mouths - surgical morcellator.
After everyone communicated, we found that this drug has a miraculous therapeutic effect on early and middle-stage cataracts. It can quickly make the eye lens clear and achieve an effect comparable to surgery.
If it is a more severe cataract and the lens has begun to harden, the treatment will be slower and the effect will not be so immediate, and it may not be able to completely return to the state before the onset of the disease.
However, after a few courses of treatment, the patient can still regain some vision and be able to see people and objects around him clearly. The impact on daily life is not that big, and the patient will not become completely blind.
The overall curative effect may not be as obvious as that of intraocular lens implantation, and the cure rate is not that high, but it is more natural, has no sequelae, and is reversible. If the curative effect is not ideal, surgical implantation can also be used as the last resort.
For elderly patients, cataract is a degenerative eye disease, which is an unstoppable aging phenomenon. Even if it recovers, it will still relapse over time. They can only continue to take this drug and treat cataract as a chronic disease. treat.
As a result, for some elderly people with financial constraints, long-term medication is not as cost-effective as low-end intraocular lens implants.
However, once the intraocular lens is implanted, there is no turning back. If any subsequent problems occur, such as retinal detachment, the only way out is blindness.
Therefore, patients with slightly better financial conditions would still rather take medicine. At least taking medicine can preserve the lens of the eye.
Patients were so consistent in their decisions that eye hospitals and IOL manufacturers soon began to feel the consequences.
The capital market was the first to react. Aier Ophthalmology's stock price plummeted, from more than 20 yuan to more than ten yuan overnight, and shareholders continued to sell. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that this former ophthalmology Moutai stock , sooner or later it will drop to a few dollars.
Although Aier Ophthalmology has other ophthalmology businesses, cataract surgery revenue accounts for a quarter of the company's total revenue, nearly 4 billion. This part of revenue will completely disappear, which is enough to be the last thing that breaks the camel's back. A straw.
Hunan Province, Shashi Aier Ophthalmology Headquarters.
President Li Bang looked at the vertical decline line of the stock market with despair, his face extremely pale.
"Damn Sanqing, I obviously didn't mess with you."
"How could this happen? Our group has other businesses, so it shouldn't have fallen like this?"
"Isn't it just a loss of billions in revenue? We will make it back in other ways."
He slumped down on the chair and remained silent for a while before speaking through gritted teeth.
"I also went bankrupt and had a child. If I didn't get back up again, I will never surrender to my fate this time."
His mind was racing and he planned to expand new business immediately.
Although cataract surgery is no longer possible, cataract surgery is not the only type of eye surgery. Refractive surgery to treat myopia is the majority of the group's revenue. Other glaucoma and retinal surgeries have not been affected.
If that doesn't work, consider doing more external eye surgery, such as tear duct surgery, eyelid surgery, corneal transplant surgery, or even entering the field of medical aesthetics and plastic surgery, such as double eyelid surgery and canthoplasty surgery.
The only thing worth worrying about is that the launch of cataract specific drugs means that Sanqing has begun to enter the field of ophthalmology.
So, will they be able to develop drugs to treat retinopathy such as myopia in the future, thus completely reshuffling the ophthalmic medical market?
Li Bang thought about it worriedly and felt that it was still not safe and that he would have to open up a few new businesses.
"Otherwise, how about starting a business around ophthalmology? Entering the glasses market? This is a hugely profitable piece of meat. We must seize every opportunity to survive this crisis."
In the past, he only thought about expanding in the ophthalmology medical industry, constantly opening new outpatient hospitals, and thinking about becoming bigger and stronger, but now, he doesn't think so anymore.
If you only work in one industry, the bigger your stall is, the faster you will die if you are stabbed in the back.
"We still have to play it safe and flourish in the ophthalmology peripheral market in order to avoid the assassination of Sanqing, the 'surgery terminator'."
He shook his head, thinking with a frustrated look on his face, and finally couldn't help but let out a long sigh, as if he wanted to let out the long-standing depression.
Just when Al Ophthalmology suffered a dimensionality reduction blow, suffered severe damage, and turned into a frightened bird.
The four major international ophthalmic medical device manufacturers also held high-level meetings to discuss countermeasures.
Intraocular lenses are mainly used to treat cataracts. They are the most widely used artificial organs and implantable medical devices in the world, with a global market size of US$5 billion.
Four companies, Johnson & Johnson Ophthalmology, Alcon, Bausch & Lomb, and Zeiss, monopolize the global mid-to-high-end intraocular lens market, accounting for as much as 80% in China.
Therefore, this time, they suffered heavy losses in the domestic market.
Europa, Zeiss Ophthalmology headquarters.
In an empty conference room, executives were attending an emergency meeting.
Everyone had a straight face, with a look of worry between their brows.
The president of Zeiss looked around and said straight to the point: "Everyone, I have received bad news. In the past month, our intraocular lens business for cataract surgery has had zero revenue!"
His eyes instantly burst with light, he stared at everyone, and said slowly: "Do you know what this means?"
Then he asked himself and answered: "It means that we will soon completely lose China's intraocular lens market."
Everyone's faces turned ugly, and someone raised their hands and asked, "What's the reason?"
"The reason is that Chinese pharmaceutical giant Sanqing has launched a specific drug to treat cataracts. It can cure patients with early- to mid-stage cataracts and greatly alleviate the symptoms of late-stage patients. This has dealt a huge blow to us."
President Zeiss said expressionlessly: "So, what do you think?"
Someone suddenly said: "If it is Sanqing's drug, it is likely to be launched overseas. Then our intraocular lens business is global..."
He didn't continue talking because it was meaningless and everyone knew the consequences.
If Sanqing takes this special medicine to the world, Zeiss's intraocular lens business will disappear completely.
Everyone had a look of fear on their faces, and at the same time there was a sense of powerlessness in their hearts.
The CEO of Zeiss was silent for a moment and continued: "The only solution for now is to seek transformation."
"Fortunately, we have deep technical reserves and unique anti-astigmatism intraocular lens technology, which is still attractive to some patients with severe cataracts."
"And in addition to cataracts, patients with high myopia will also choose intraocular lens implantation surgery. We can develop in this direction."
"I believe that with our strength, the transformation should be no problem."
"In addition, we will also increase research and development efforts in artificial eyeballs, hoping to continue our dominant position in the field of eye imaging."
Warm applause broke out instantly, and everyone nodded in agreement and smiled.
The same scene also happened at the Johnson & Johnson Ophthalmology headquarters.
Johnson & Johnson Ophthalmology also has excellent technical strength. Its depth-of-field extended intraocular lens technology is unique in the world and still has certain application prospects in patients with severe cataracts.
Because even if patients with severe cataracts take Sanqing's special medicine, the cure rate is not 100%, and they may not completely return to normal. And generally the elderly will have astigmatism, presbyopia and other complications. If a multi-functional intraocular lens is implanted, Then you can completely return to a healthy state.
This still has advantages for some elderly patients with good economic conditions.
Johnson & Johnson Ophthalmology also quickly made the choice to consolidate its existing advantages while exploring new markets.
However, mid-range intraocular lens manufacturers do not have such good luck.
They don't have unique skills like Johnson & Johnson and Zeiss. Under the attack of Sanqing's cataract cleaning, they can only take price reduction measures to see if they can restore some of the decline.
As for low-end manufacturers, let alone many that went bankrupt.
Everyone knows that a major reshuffle in the intraocular lens industry is coming.
