China's laser medical beauty equipment is running wild on the "shortcut"

The performance of the laser determines the quality and power of the output beam of the laser equipment, and is one of the most core components of the laser equipment. The approval of Chinese picosecond lasers is driven by market demand, and is also related to the gradual maturity of the domestic supply chain and the production and manufacturing of core components in China.

"The technical path and supply chain of picosecond laser seed sources are relatively mature, and have even been supplied to Korean laser equipment; especially the 532nm & 1064nm dual-wavelength seed source supply chain, which has laid the foundation for the research and development of downstream complete machine manufacturers." Xia Yuqing said that the regulatory authorities currently have a set of standard review systems, so more picosecond laser equipment may be approved in 2025.

According to public information, industrial laser companies such as Radium Optoelectronics, Zhuo Lei Laser, and Xinglin Ruiguang have all launched picosecond lasers for medical beauty. As the most expensive equipment in the current laser medical beauty field, the Chinese products of picosecond lasers have been approved and entered the market, officially starting the pace of Made in China.

It is worth mentioning that in recent years, as technologies such as gas lasers, Nd:YAG lasers, and semiconductor lasers have matured, a series of laser treatment equipment with different wavelengths have been produced in China.

"Many industrial laser companies have seen the demand for lasers in the medical beauty industry and launched corresponding laser products, which has lowered the threshold for downstream equipment manufacturers." Liu Shuai said that before picosecond lasers, many other laser medical beauty equipment had achieved high quality, including laser hair removal devices, carbon dioxide lasers, and Q-switched lasers.

Overall, including picosecond lasers, China-made laser medical beauty equipment has two major characteristics.

One is that it is highly benchmarked against imported products, and its efficacy is comparable to that of imported products.

Taking picosecond lasers as an example, the product has been based on mainstream imported products since the beginning of the project, and has been developed along the technical route of 532nm&1064nm dual wavelengths. Under strict benchmarking in all aspects, the final performance parameters will not be worse than imported products.

The efficacy is comparable to that of imported products, which is also one of the promotional points of many products. For example, in November 2024, Weishi Medical introduced at the performance briefing that the clinical trial data of its Nd:YAG frequency-doubled picosecond laser therapy device showed that the pigment removal rate was no different from that of imported benchmark products.

Second, those products with large market space and good market response have achieved "all possible replacements", especially in the mid- and low-end equipment market.

Medical beauty is different from pure treatment projects. Clinical demand is the basis for market development, but not all. Marketing is also an important factor affecting whether a project or product can be successfully promoted.

"Some products that are popular overseas have not been promoted in China, or have only experienced a short-lived situation, such as non-ablative fractional lasers, dye lasers, long-pulse lasers, etc., and these products lack the motivation to replace them."

Liu Shuai said that in general, laser medical beauty equipment with high market demand and high replacement value has achieved Chinese replacement.

In short, laser medical beauty equipment has achieved rapid development under the premise of referring to the technical route, performance parameters, market feedback, etc. of imported products, which is indeed a shortcut.