China's high-end manufacturers are making inroads into the domestic medical device sector, injecting impetus into its high-quality development.

Driven by both domestic and overseas demand, China's medical device sector has been rapidly growing, attracting more domestic players.

EVE Energy Co Ltd, a domestic battery maker, announced in June it will establish a medical-use battery unit for relevant independent research and development and production.

The company, which is listed on the Shenzhen bourse with a market value of over 100 billion yuan ($13.9 billion), has launched battery solutions for seven types of medical devices, such as an automated external defibrillator, a respirator and a brain pacemaker.

Shares of EVE Energy closed 1.53 percent higher at 59.16 yuan on Thursday.

Compared to consumer batteries, medical-use batteries have stricter requirements, such as product safety, energy density, lifespan and adaptability. Requirements and standards for those used in implantable medical devices are even higher.

For example, for a vitro automated external defibrillator, or AED, the battery must be able to perform a high-discharge current at a broad temperature span ranging from -40 C to 50 C. In addition, as AEDs require long standby periods, supporting batteries need to have high-energy density, slow self-discharge and low maintenance costs.

The market for such batteries has long been monopolized by foreign companies. A single implantable U-shaped battery can be priced at up to $600.

"The need to cut battery prices offers domestic enterprises great opportunities," said Yao Jing, an analyst of medical devices at VBData.cn, a Chongqing-based healthcare service platform.

EVE Energy said that so far, it has provided batteries for more than 50 million AEDs, with average standby surpassing five years. Its brain pacemaker batteries have completed more than 1,000 clinical application tests. The diameter of its capsule endoscope is only 7 millimeters and the endurance of the battery is 10 to 15 hours.

The company said that it has controlled the product defect rate of its medical batteries to less than 1 percent.

"For advanced manufacturing enterprises, wafting into the medical sector is an inevitable trend. The new business unit brings a new growth curve and enhances enterprises' risk prevention capability. Meanwhile, the tough standards of medical batteries force enterprises to improve their technological R&D abilities, further raising their competitiveness," said Yao.

New energy vehicle maker BYD is also tapping into the sector. According to Qichacha, a corporate information-sharing platform, BYD registered on March 31 for two trademarks under the medical device category.

Yao said pioneering manufacturing enterprises empowering the medical device sector helps the sector break the foreign monopoly, make up for industrial chain weaknesses and realize high-end development.

"The development of high-end medical devices inevitably involves upstream industrial chains such as electronic components, raw materials, software and emerging technologies. The participation of corresponding enterprises helps medical device manufacturers break past R&D bottlenecks," he said.

China issued a guideline in 2021 on the medical equipment industry's development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), setting goals that by 2025, the industry should witness major improvements in the modernization of the industrial chain. Mainstream medical equipment should achieve effective supply, and the performance and quality level of high-end medical equipment should significantly improve.

According to global market research firm Frost & Sullivan, in 2022, China's medical device market reached 958.2 billion yuan, growing 13.6 percent on a year-on-year basis.