(Yicai Global) May 23 -- Major Chinese hospitals told Yicai Global they face a shortage of artificial blood vessels as Covid-19 outbreaks in the country have slowed imports and snarled domestic logistics.

China relies on imports of artificial vascular products and its hospitals have limited stocks because of high prices, said a surgeon in Beijing, adding that a single unit can cost between CNY10,000 and CNY30,000 (USD1,500 and USD4,500).

“The Covid-19 epidemic has raised transportation and customs clearance times, so patients are waiting for deliveries to have their operations,” the surgeon said.

The short supply of large-diameter products has become worse, he noted, adding that many agents fail to replenish their stocks and trans-regional cargo deliveries have become more difficult because of broken logistics chains. The products, which are only made by Japan’s Terumo and Germany’s Maquet, are mainly used in aortic dissection and aortic aneurysm patients.

“More and more hospitals can do the operations that need such products, worsening the recent shortage,” said the surgeon, who works in the cardiac surgery department of one of China’s largest specialized hospitals. The hospital consumes more than 2,000 artificial vascular products a year on average.

Shanghai has not been affected by the shortage as much as Beijing, because the number of vascular operations has plunged in the city due to the Covid-19 outbreak. But as soon as its hospitals get back to doing them, they are also expected to encounter the same problems.

“Disrupted logistics and transport hit the supply of imported medical apparatus and instruments,” the director of a cardiology department at a large Shanghai hospital told Yicai Global.

“China needs 20,000 to 30,000 artificial vascular product items a year, equal to about 10 percent of the global need,” an industry insider told Yicai Global. “But foreign producers usually choose to supply western countries first in case of shortage.”

The shortfall will encourage Chinese firms to develop their own, according to Li Chao, chairman of Beijing-based Aortec Medical Technology, as demand is booming.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione