Market share nationwide first: Guangzhou racing IVD new track

Ask AI · How can Guangzhou leverage data to drive the upgrade of the IVD industry?

Jinyu Medical staff interpreting pathology slides. Photo provided by the interviewee.

As the growth rate of conventional medical equipment tendering and procurement gradually slows down, and as centralized procurement policies force the industry to seek a second growth curve, China’s in vitro diagnostic (IVD) industry stands at a critical crossroads. In Guangzhou, a transformative wave driven by “data” is surging.

N Video reporters from Southern Metropolis Daily entered the headquarters of Jinyu Medical on the Guangzhou International Bio-Island, where they found not just cold testing assembly lines, but a real-time data live broadcast screen.

On the screen, yellow dots represent business coverage, red dots mark key hospitals, and the positions of cold chain logistics vehicles and the status of samples in transit are clearly visible. This is not only a visualization of operational management but also a microcosm of Guangzhou’s leap towards “data intelligence” in the IVD industry.

Know More D

IVD refers to in vitro diagnostics.

Industry Layout

Guangzhou ranks IVD as the top of its six core tracks.

The biomedicine and health industry is a strategic pillar of Guangzhou’s “12218” modern industrial system. After undergoing the tempering of a “V-shaped” reversal by 2025, Guangzhou’s choices for future tracks have become increasingly clear: no “flood irrigation,” but precise strikes.

Based on industrial foundations and future trends, Guangzhou has precisely identified six core tracks: IVD, traditional Chinese medicine, medical institution preparations, nuclear medicine, cell and gene therapy, and brain-computer interfaces, aiming for “breakthroughs at single points and blossoming at multiple points.” Among these, IVD is ranked as the top core track.

Guangzhou’s confidence comes primarily from its tangible “hard assets.” It has gathered over 6,500 biomedical enterprises, with more than 7,600 medical institutions and 191 million annual patient visits forming a natural “testing ground.” Particularly in the IVD field, Guangzhou’s third-party medical testing holds the largest market share in the country, establishing its absolute voice in this area.

However, being number one in market share does not imply a long-term “lying win.” For government departments, the emphasis on developing the IVD track is based on a forward-looking judgment of future medical forms.

With increased health awareness and an aging population, the diagnostic endpoints are shifting forward; in vitro diagnostics have become the source of 70% of the information in clinical decision-making. Whoever masters the most advanced diagnostic technology holds the key to precision medicine.

Guangzhou’s strategic intent is clear: leveraging its vast clinical sample resources and utilizing artificial intelligence large model technology to upgrade from a traditional “testing province” to a “data powerhouse” and “intelligent diagnostic hub.” This is not only to consolidate industrial advantages but also to seize high ground in future medical technology standards and data asset transactions.

Guangzhou’s Approach

Policy “1+N” and Platform “Three Jumps”

After selecting the track, how to exert strength? Guangzhou’s approach shows distinctive systematic characteristics.

At the policy level, Guangzhou has built a precise support system of “1+N.” With the overarching document “Several Policy Measures to Promote High-Quality Development of Biomedicine in Guangzhou” issued by the municipal government in 2024, substantial financial support is provided for the landing of top global technologies.

Subsequently, for the IVD industry, Guangzhou is accelerating the introduction of a special policy package, complemented by “N” measures such as innovative drug and device catalogs, medical insurance support, and application promotion, covering the entire chain from achievement transformation, administrative approval to market expansion. This “customized” policy provision ensures that benefits for enterprises are no longer just slogans but realizable dividends.

More importantly, there is the physical space for support and the integration of the innovation chain.

N Video reporters noted that Guangzhou is engaging in a grand “platform relay” strategy. At the front end, relying on the human cell lineage big science device, Guangzhou National Laboratory, and other “exploratory platforms,” it tackles cutting-edge basic science; at the mid-end, the Guangdong Provincial Innovative Medical Achievement Transformation Center and other “bridging platforms” convert laboratory concepts into patentable industrial solutions; at the back end, the four major value parks in Huangpu, Nansha, Yuexiu, and Liwan, along with dedicated IVD characteristic industrial parks, provide a “carrier” for project implementation.

This closed-loop design from “source innovation” to “transformation acceleration” to “industrial landing” addresses the challenges of biomedical achievement transformation. Particularly for the IVD industry, this layout allows an idea for a testing reagent to quickly find clinical validation resources, approval guidance support, and large-scale production bases.

Enterprise Response

Jinyu Medical’s “AI IN ALL” and Ecological Collaboration

The favorable wind of policies ultimately needs enterprises to take root and flourish. In Guangzhou, leading enterprises represented by Jinyu Medical are responding to this transformation with concrete actions, and their path has significant sample value.

Faced with the overlap of economic cycles and medical policy cycles, in 2025, Jinyu Medical initiated the second five-year phase of its digital transformation, proposing the “AI IN ALL” strategy. This stems from the company’s confidence built over more than 30 years of deep engagement in medical testing.

Relying on over 3 billion medical testing data points, Jinyu Medical integrates new-generation information technology and biotechnology to better assist doctors by providing intelligent report interpretation, specialized disease auxiliary diagnosis services, and more. Notably, an AI model for cervical cancer auxiliary screening developed for pathologists has significantly reduced the time-consuming interpretation work, compressing the slide reading speed to one-tenth of the original.

On the other hand, Jinyu Medical is also continuously exploring paths for the marketization of data elements, leading the industry in successfully running the entire process of data product trading, and currently, 32 data products have been listed on data exchanges in Guangzhou, Beijing, and Shanghai.

In the Baiyun District of Guangzhou, another model is also being explored. Di’an Diagnostics is collaborating with Guangzhou First People’s Hospital Baiyun Hospital to build a medical testing center for the Western Medical Group, implementing a centralized operation of “grassroots sampling, central testing, and mutual recognition of results.” This not only decentralizes services but also promotes the equalization of high-quality medical resources through a regional information integration platform.

Standing at the threshold of the “14th Five-Year Plan,” the competitive logic of Guangzhou’s IVD industry is undergoing profound changes. From top-level policy design to platform construction on the ground, to enterprises’ digital breakthroughs, Guangzhou is playing a strategic game aimed at mastering the future discourse power of healthcare. This city, once known as the “capital of testing,” is rapidly advancing toward becoming the “capital of intelligent diagnosis.”

Planning: Wang Weiguo Li Yang

Coordination: Yin Lai Wang Daobin You Manni

Writing: Southern Metropolis Daily reporter Wu Yueming