China's ophthalmic device industry is not a single market.

An intraocular lens used in cataract surgery, an OCT system installed in an ophthalmology department, a femtosecond laser used for refractive surgery and an orthokeratology lens fitted to a teenager may all be considered part of "ophthalmology" or "vision care."

But they have very different customers, regulatory pathways, purchasing mechanisms and business models.

That distinction is particularly important in China.

Some ophthalmic products are purchased primarily by public hospitals and are exposed to national volume-based procurement. Others are capital equipment purchased by hospitals and private eye-care groups. Some products sit at the boundary between medical devices and consumer healthcare, where patients and families play a much larger role in purchasing decisions.

China also has a distinctive competitive structure. Long-established multinational ophthalmic companies including Alcon, ZEISS, Bausch + Lomb and Topcon continue to participate across major product categories, while a growing group of Chinese companies is becoming important in intraocular lenses, myopia management, ophthalmic imaging and surgical equipment.

For international executives trying to understand the Chinese market, it is therefore more useful to start with the product structure than with a single headline market-size estimate.

China’s Ophthalmic Device Industry at a Glance

The companies above are representative examples rather than a market-share ranking.

Cataract Is One of the Most Important Ophthalmic Device Markets — and One of the Most Changed by Procurement Policy

Cataract surgery creates demand for an entire technology stack.

The procedure can involve phacoemulsification equipment, microscopes and visualization systems, intraocular lenses, ophthalmic viscoelastic devices, surgical packs, knives, injectors and other consumables.

Major international ophthalmic companies maintain broad cataract portfolios. Alcon's surgical business includes cataract equipment, IOLs and disposables, while ZEISS offers equipment and implants across cataract workflows. Bausch + Lomb's ophthalmic portfolio also includes IOLs and cataract and vitreoretinal surgical equipment.

But the Chinese IOL market has changed substantially because of national volume-based procurement.

China's fourth national high-value medical consumables procurement program included intraocular lenses. The procurement covered a broad spectrum of IOL categories, including monofocal, bifocal, trifocal and extended-depth-of-focus products. Government reporting states that the average price reduction for IOL products was approximately 60%.

That policy is now visible in company financial results.

Haohai Biological Technology reported RMB721.05 million in ophthalmology revenue in 2025, down 15.51% from 2024. Its cataract product line generated RMB314.36 million, down 24.91%. The company specifically cited national IOL volume-based procurement, competitive pressure and falling prices as important factors affecting the business.

Gaush Meditech likewise reported that implementation of national procurement prices caused a significant decline in the unit selling prices of its proprietary IOL products in 2024.

For global executives, this illustrates an important feature of Chinese ophthalmology:

A large clinical market does not necessarily translate into stable unit economics.

Procurement policy can materially reshape an established product category.

Chinese IOL Companies Are Moving Beyond Basic Monofocal Lenses

Domestic competition in IOLs should no longer be understood simply as a low-price alternative to imported monofocal lenses.

Chinese manufacturers are progressively expanding into more differentiated lens designs.

Eyebright Medical, listed on Shanghai's STAR Market, has built its surgical ophthalmology portfolio around intraocular lenses and related products. Its current product catalogue includes preloaded IOLs as well as toric, multifocal and extended-depth-of-focus configurations.

A particularly notable development occurred in January 2025.

Eyebright's Loong Crystal PR phakic intraocular lens received NMPA approval for myopia correction in adults with phakic eyes. The product was approved through China's Special Review Procedure for Innovative Medical Devices.

This is commercially significant because phakic IOLs belong to refractive surgery rather than conventional cataract replacement.

Eyebright is therefore expanding from one ophthalmic implant market into another: from replacing a cataract patient's natural lens to providing an implantable refractive-correction option for myopic patients.

Haohai Biotec has followed a different development path. Its ophthalmology businesses include IOLs and ophthalmic viscoelastic devices for cataract surgery as well as products and materials used in refractive correction and myopia management. In 2025, Haohai reported RMB376.14 million in revenue from its myopia-prevention, control and refractive-correction product line.

The direction is worth watching.

Competition in China's IOL market is gradually moving from the simple question of:

Who can manufacture an acceptable domestic IOL?

toward more difficult questions involving:

optical design, materials, toric correction, presbyopia correction, extended depth of focus, delivery systems and refractive implants.

Refractive Surgery Is a Different Market from Cataract

Although cataract and refractive surgery both involve ophthalmic surgeons, their commercial structures are different.

Refractive surgery is much more closely linked to elective and self-pay healthcare, and technology platforms can directly influence how hospitals and clinics position their services.

ZEISS is a particularly visible global technology supplier in this field. Its China medical-technology portfolio covers ophthalmology, including corneal refractive surgery, cataract solutions, diagnostic equipment and surgical visualization. ZEISS currently markets its VISUMAX platform globally for corneal refractive applications and maintains dedicated ophthalmic operations in China.

Alcon also operates across cataract, refractive technology and vision care, making it another important global participant in the broader Chinese ophthalmic ecosystem.

The emergence of Eyebright's phakic IOL adds a Chinese manufacturer to another part of the refractive technology landscape.

This matters because refractive surgery is not one product category.

It includes competing or complementary approaches based on corneal laser surgery, lens-based surgery and associated diagnostics.

For manufacturers, the competitive unit is increasingly not just an individual machine or implant.

It is the clinical pathway built around patient selection, preoperative measurement, surgical technology and postoperative visual outcomes.

Myopia Management Makes China Structurally Different from Many Ophthalmic Markets

Myopia deserves a separate category in any serious analysis of Chinese ophthalmology.

China's National Health Commission reported that the overall myopia rate among children and adolescents was 51.9% in 2022, including a 12.7% rate among six-year-old children. Those are the latest figures cited by the NHC in its 2024 response on national childhood and adolescent myopia-control work.

This creates a large ecosystem extending beyond conventional hospital ophthalmology.

It includes vision screening, refraction, axial-length monitoring, orthokeratology, specialty contact lenses, spectacle-based myopia-management products and professional optometry services.

Orthokeratology is particularly important in understanding the Chinese market.

The NMPA regulates orthokeratology lenses as Class III medical devices, reflecting their higher regulatory risk and the need for professional fitting and follow-up.

Two Chinese public companies are especially relevant here.

Ovctek

Ovctek, or Autek China, has built its business around orthokeratology and optometry.

Its 2025 annual report states that its revenues are now derived primarily from orthokeratology-related products and optometry services. The company also describes an increasingly competitive market in which additional registered orthokeratology brands are competing alongside soft defocus contact lenses, functional spectacle lenses and other approaches to myopia management.

The company is also moving further downstream.

Ovctek has expanded its network of optometry and eye-care service operations, building a model that combines products with professional fitting and follow-up services. In 2025, revenue from its controlled optometry-terminal businesses had become a major component of the company's overall business.

This is an important distinction from many conventional medical-device companies.

Ovctek is increasingly participating in both manufacturing the product and operating the channel through which eye-care services reach consumers.

Eyebright Medical

Eyebright has also built a diversified myopia-management portfolio around orthokeratology lenses, rigid gas-permeable lenses and defocus spectacle lenses. The company combines this with its surgical IOL and consumer contact-lens businesses.

The two companies illustrate why the Chinese ophthalmic market cannot be understood simply by studying hospital procurement.

In myopia management, the boundary between:

medical device → professional service → retail → consumer brand

is much less distinct.

Ophthalmic Imaging Is Becoming an Important Field for Chinese High-End Equipment Companies

Another major change is occurring in ophthalmic diagnostic equipment.

For many years, high-end ophthalmic imaging in China was strongly associated with established international optical companies.

ZEISS offers ophthalmic diagnostic systems including OCT and optical biometry as part of its China portfolio. Topcon's China product line includes OCT, fundus imaging, surgical microscopes and other diagnostic equipment.

Chinese companies are now developing increasingly sophisticated systems of their own.

Two companies are particularly worth knowing.

TowardPi Medical

TowardPi Medical was founded in 2017 from technology originating in Tsinghua University's research ecosystem.

Its current portfolio includes swept-source OCT, ophthalmic surgical microscopes, ultra-widefield fundus imaging and optical biometry, with additional ophthalmic equipment platforms under development or commercialization.

In May 2026, TowardPi demonstrated a new full-range swept-source OCT system operating at up to 1.2 million A-scans per second.

Regardless of how individual performance specifications translate into clinical purchasing decisions, the broader development is important:

Chinese ophthalmic equipment companies are now competing through imaging performance and engineering, not simply through lower acquisition prices.

Intalight

Intalight, formerly known as SVision Imaging, is another Chinese company focused on advanced ophthalmic imaging.

The company states that its first self-developed OCT system received NMPA registration in 2019. It subsequently expanded into full-eye OCT platforms combining posterior-segment OCT/OCTA, anterior-segment imaging and ocular biometry.

The emergence of TowardPi, Intalight and other domestic imaging companies makes ophthalmic imaging one of the most interesting areas to watch in Chinese MedTech.

Unlike a mature consumable category affected primarily by procurement price, advanced imaging creates competition around:

optics, lasers, scanning speed, imaging range, algorithms, software, AI and clinical workflow.

Those capabilities can potentially travel outside China as well.

Gaush Meditech Represents a Different Chinese Ophthalmology Business Model

Gaush Meditech is useful for international readers because it does not fit neatly into a single product category.

The Hong Kong-listed ophthalmic company combines proprietary products with distribution products from international brand partners.

Its portfolio covers seven ophthalmic subspecialties:

Its products span diagnostic equipment, treatment and surgical instruments, high-value consumables and general consumables.

This hybrid structure is important for understanding China's ophthalmic-device industry.

Some Chinese companies began by inventing and manufacturing a narrow product.

Others developed through distribution relationships with international suppliers and later began building or acquiring proprietary technology.

Gaush belongs much more to the second category.

That gives it a different set of assets: hospital relationships, service capability, distribution infrastructure, access to multiple clinical specialties and increasingly its own product portfolio.

In other words, China's future ophthalmic competitors may emerge not only from startups with one breakthrough device.

They can also emerge from commercial platforms that gradually internalize more of the product portfolio.

The Chinese Ophthalmic Market Mixes Global Leaders and Domestic Specialists

It would be misleading to describe the current market simply as "foreign brands being replaced by domestic brands."

The competitive pattern varies greatly by product category.

In surgical platforms and workflow systems

International ophthalmic companies still bring very broad technology portfolios.

Alcon operates across surgical equipment, IOLs, vitreoretinal surgery and vision care. ZEISS spans ophthalmic diagnostics, cataract, corneal refractive surgery and surgical visualization. Bausch + Lomb has long participated in China across contact lenses, lens care, ophthalmic pharmaceuticals and surgical products.

In implants and consumables

Chinese companies including Eyebright and Haohai have established substantial portfolios in IOLs and other ophthalmic consumables, while national procurement has materially altered pricing in cataract implants.

In myopia management

Companies such as Ovctek and Eyebright have developed strong product portfolios around orthokeratology and other forms of optical correction, while China's large population of myopic children creates a distinctive domestic ecosystem linking medical devices with optometry services.

In ophthalmic imaging

New Chinese companies including TowardPi and Intalight are building high-end OCT and related diagnostic systems, directly entering technology categories historically associated with large international optical manufacturers.

The result is not one uniform localization curve.

It is several different localization stories happening at different speeds.

The Customer Also Changes From One Ophthalmic Product to Another

Another reason ophthalmology should not be treated as one market is that the buyer changes by segment.

The economic logic changes accordingly.

An IOL company needs to understand national procurement and hospital clinical use.

An OCT company competes around capital-equipment purchasing, diagnostic performance and workflow.

An orthokeratology company needs not only a registered Class III medical device but also a professional fitting and follow-up network.

A contact-lens company operates much closer to consumer healthcare and retail.

That is why the same ophthalmology company can have businesses with dramatically different sales models.

Four Chinese Ophthalmology Companies Illustrate Four Different Strategies

For international executives who want a short list of companies to follow, four names are particularly useful because they represent very different strategies.

Haohai Biotec is also important, particularly in IOLs, ophthalmic viscoelastics, refractive correction and ophthalmic materials, although ophthalmology is one of several businesses within the broader company.

Intalight is another company worth monitoring as domestic competition in OCT and advanced imaging develops.

This group is not exhaustive.

Its value is that it shows how different the emerging Chinese competitors actually are.

Three Structural Changes Matter Most in 2026

Procurement is forcing parts of the market to become more cost-sensitive

National IOL volume-based procurement has already substantially reduced prices and changed the economics of cataract consumables. Company disclosures from Haohai and Gaush provide direct evidence of that impact.

This does not mean ophthalmology is becoming a purely low-price market.

It means manufacturers increasingly need to decide where meaningful differentiation can still support economic value.

That question is particularly relevant to advanced IOLs, surgical equipment and diagnostic systems.

Chinese competition is moving into technically difficult categories

Domestic manufacturing is progressing beyond simpler consumables.

Eyebright now has a domestically developed phakic IOL approved by NMPA. TowardPi and Intalight are developing high-end ophthalmic imaging systems. Gaush is increasing its proprietary product portfolio across multiple ophthalmic specialties.

This changes the competitive question for international companies.

The issue is increasingly not whether China can manufacture ophthalmic devices.

It is which high-value ophthalmic categories Chinese companies can enter next.

The boundary between medical technology and consumer eye care is becoming increasingly important

Eyebright's portfolio now stretches from implanted IOLs to orthokeratology and soft contact lenses. Ovctek combines Class III orthokeratology devices with a growing network of optometry services.

That creates an unusually broad ophthalmic commercial landscape.

Companies may need to understand hospitals, physicians, optometrists, private eye-care groups, retail channels, parents and patients — sometimes within the same disease area.

What Global Ophthalmic Companies Should Watch in China

For international companies, the most useful way to monitor China is by product category rather than by tracking "the ophthalmology market" as a whole.

These questions are more actionable than a single estimate of the size of China's ophthalmic device market.

The Bottom Line

China's ophthalmic device industry should be understood as several interconnected markets:

cataract surgery → refractive surgery → retina and imaging → glaucoma → myopia management → optometry → consumer vision care.

Each has different products, competitors and economics.

The most important development is not simply "localization."

The picture is more complex.

In IOLs, national procurement is changing price economics while Chinese manufacturers move toward more differentiated implants.

In myopia management, domestic companies have built businesses that combine regulated medical devices with professional services and consumer-facing channels.

In OCT and ophthalmic imaging, Chinese companies are entering high-end equipment categories through advances in optics, engineering and software.

And across the industry, global companies such as Alcon, ZEISS, Bausch + Lomb and Topcon continue to participate alongside a growing group of Chinese competitors.

For global MedTech executives, the right question is therefore no longer simply:

How large is China's ophthalmology market?

A better set of questions is:

Which segment are we talking about? Who controls the technology? Who makes the purchasing decision? How is the product paid for? And where are Chinese companies becoming genuinely competitive?

Those questions provide a much clearer map of China's ophthalmic device industry in 2026.

August 19, 2026