China sales at Korean implant makers such as Osstem Implant and Dentium keep falling. It has been more than two years since the Chinese government began forcing down the price of implants sold to public hospitals through competitive bidding, yet under that same policy the Swiss company Straumann has climbed to the top of the Chinese market instead.
China's volume-based procurement (VBP) system, first implemented in late 2022, takes bids from implant makers and requires them to supply public hospitals at or below the winning price. As a result, implant procedure costs in China have dropped sharply, and the impact has been greater for Korean companies that relied more heavily on China sales.
Falling China Sales at Dentium and Osstem Implant
Dentium is heavily dependent on China, which accounted for roughly 47% of its 2024 revenue. Dentium's consolidated revenue for the second quarter of 2025 was 82.3 billion won and operating profit was 15.5 billion won, down 26.3% and 43.9% respectively from a year earlier. China revenue alone came to 37.5 billion won, down 35.8%.
Osstem Implant is not much different. Its China revenue fell from a peak of 353 billion won in 2022 to 335.7 billion won in 2024, with operating profit down 33%. Dio, ranked around fourth among Korean implant makers, posted an operating loss of 40.7 billion won in 2024.
Straumann's Rise to No. 1 in China
Under the same policy, Straumann took the opposite path. China's implant market share in 2019 ran Osstem Implant 33%, Dentium 25%, and Straumann 22%, but after volume-based procurement took effect, Straumann climbed to first place while Dentium's share fell sharply.
One analysis suggested that as volume-based procurement lowered the cost barrier for implant procedures, demand for premium brands actually grew, and Straumann captured that trend by building a factory in China itself. At home, Megagen Implant took advantage of Dentium's slump to overtake it in revenue.
Preparing for the Second Round and What It Means for Korea
No Start Date Yet for the Second Round
China flagged a second round of volume-based procurement bidding for late 2025, and the industry initially expected it to take effect in the first half of this year. But even by August no exact start date had been announced. That timing is seen as the biggest variable that will determine the stock prices and earnings of Korean implant makers.
Low-Cost Products Made Locally, Premium Lines Made at Home
Osstem Implant, Dentium, and Dio are responding with a dual-track strategy: making lower-cost products at their Chinese factories to match the procurement price, while keeping relatively expensive premium products in production at home.
Implant Prices and New Product Development in Korea
This policy does not directly change implant prices in Korean dental practices. That's because Korea runs its own national health insurance system, which covers up to two implants over a lifetime for partially edentulous patients aged 65 and older, with its own separately set 30% copayment rate. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, that copayment rate was lowered from 50% to 30% in July 2018, and of the roughly 1.2 million won cost per implant, patients pay about 370,000 won.
That said, Osstem Implant and Dentium have long used the money they made in China to fund new product development and clinical education at home. If the slump in China drags on, it's worth watching whether the pace of new products released in Korea slows, or whether the lower-cost lineups the two companies are preparing end up flowing into the domestic market as well.