EU to restrict Chinese medical device manufacturers' access to public procurement worth more than €5 million

The measures taken will limit Chinese companies' access to approximately 59% of EU public spending on medical devices (around 150 billion euros). At the same time, the EC will allow companies not from China, but supplying products from there, to participate in purchases with a price above 5 million euros. In this case, the regulator will oblige the winners of tenders to supply goods of Chinese origin worth no more than 50% of the total price of the lot throughout the entire term of the contract. All this, the EC summarizes, can reduce the import of such products from China by 15-20% annually, which is from 1 billion to 1.2 billion euros per year out of the total volume of imports of Chinese products of 6.2 billion euros.

According to Medtech Europe, the EU market for the industry was valued at around $150 billion in 2023, with public procurement accounting for 70%. Contracts worth more than €5 million accounted for only 4% of tenders, but accounted for around 60% in terms of value.

"This response is proportionate to China's barriers while ensuring that all necessary medical products are available to the EU healthcare system. Exceptions are only possible if there are no alternative suppliers. The measures are in line with the EU's international obligations, including under the WTO, as the EU has no procurement obligations towards China," the European Commission said in a press release.

The EC's actions were the result of the first investigation conducted under the EU International Procurement Instrument (IPI) regulation. The work revealed the impact of the Buy China policy on public tenders held in China: back in April 2024, the European Commission noted that administrative procurement measures created favourable conditions in China only for domestic manufacturers and their equipment. According to the EC, discriminatory provisions are also contained in Article 10 of the PRC Public Procurement Law: "Public institutions must procure domestic goods, services and works, except in cases where the goods, services and works are not available in the territory of the People's Republic of China or are not available on reasonable commercial terms, are intended for use outside the country or in cases provided for by other regulations."

In addition, the Buy China program includes a list of priority goods for public procurement, consisting of 315 items, of which 178 are medical products. Strict localization requirements have been established for 137 items. The European Commission also refers to the Made in China 2025 strategy, which states that for clinics, purchases of domestic medical products of medium and high class should reach 50% by 2020 and 70% by 2025. In 2030, this figure is planned to be 95%.

A January 2025 EC report said procurement procedures in China “suffer from a serious lack of transparency,” but even the information available “indicates the systemic and repetitive nature of measures and practices that entail discrimination.” The commission found direct and indirect discrimination in 87% of tenders in the sample analyzed.

The EC concludes that the above measures, as well as the practice of import restrictions, put EU operators and goods at a systemic disadvantage. Against this background, the EC emphasizes that the EU public procurement market remains one of the most open in the world: the export of medical devices from China, for example, more than doubled between 2015 and 2023.

The United States is also imposing restrictions on China. Nicholas Chui, manager of the Chinese investment fund Franklin Templeton, noted in a commentary for Bloomberg that the trade war that US President Donald Trump intends to wage has generally had a negative impact on many Chinese companies, but even here the country can benefit and bring back the specialists who have left to create greater potential for new research. Such changes are associated with the attempts of the new US administration at the end of May 2025 to tighten the visa policy for Chinese students and with the reduction in the volume of state funding for scientific research in the United States, including in the field of medicine and pharmaceuticals. In a March survey of 1,600 American scientist respondents in Nature, 75% said they were considering leaving the United States due to the “disruptions” caused by the president’s new policy. However, Chinese biotech is experiencing an upswing despite this. Vademecum’s article describes how specialized companies from China are increasing their presence in the global market.